Wildlife habitat cuts cause concern

Deer hunters are joining environmentalists and scientists in a call to halt plans that would reduce wildlife habitat on Crown land.

The Quality Deer Management Association of New Brunswick is drafting an action plan to sustain the deer population on Crown land.

And the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is pushing the Progressive Conservative government to reconsider a cutting plan authorized by the former Liberal government.

The two groups want more land protected as wildlife habitat and are calling for changes to the timber harvesting plan for Crown land for the next five-years.

New Brunswick has 3.5 million hectares of public land in trust for future generations.

The provincial government sets aside 30 per cent of Crown land as conservation forest, which includes deer wintering areas, waterfront buffer areas and protected natural areas.

The former Liberal government drafted a plan to take effect in April 2012 that would cut that conservation forest to 23 per cent.

There is concern whether the reduction in protected area will be enough to allow wildlife to keep breeding new generations

Roberta Clowater, a member of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Association, said the imminent five-year Crown timber harvesting plan needs to be stopped.

"We know that there's a severe reduction — almost cut in half — of deer wintering areas," Clowater said.

'Wildlife experts, in fact, are quite concerned that we are actually pushing down to the minimum limit for wildlife.' — Roberta Clowater

The province's deer population numbers have declined significantly in the past 20 years.

There were more than 200,000 deer in the late 1980s and that dropped to 120,000 in fall 2008. Those numbers are now at 65,000.

Clowater said the reduction in protected areas has a direct impact on wildlife.

She said the planned cuts to the protected areas must be stopped.

"Wildlife experts, in fact, are quite concerned that we are actually pushing down to the minimum limit for wildlife. Some wildlife need old forests, the wildlife that need forests that are less disturbed," she said.