Patrick Hunt

Well, the fact that what I'd like to know, there's lots of things.

Yeah, I mean, first of all, I'd like to know, did the Department of Education know that this book was being sent out?

Possibly they didn't because anyone can send something to school.

And I feel...

I just feel that, you know, if I saw this book coming in through the post box and I was a school teacher, I'd look at it and go, oh, that's a lovely book.

There's a picture of a squirrel on the front of it.

It looks very nature friendly.

You mightn't think about it too much.

You might just put it on the staff table, which is where I found it myself on Friday and again in the school that I'm in today.

And you'd assume that it's an OK book to read, but there's more going on behind this book, I suppose.

And I feel like, you know, it is very misrepresenting the ecological impacts that the sicker spruce plantations have on the soil, like the acidified soil.

And yes, we do need Sitka spruce and other evergreens.

You know, we need timber productive trees.

But I think what we need to do is think about how we integrate them with native species like Scots pine and birch and other species that, you know, can grow and produce productive timber.

And we also need to think about where we site these Sitka spruce plantations.

So they're often planted on bogs because they're the only tree that will grow in some soil conditions.

It is, it is.

I have three copies of the book here.

Yeah, yeah.

I can read it.