Mr. Simon White:

The forestry companies were given, in general, the planting grant, namely the money paid to individuals to plant. One applied to plant and grow trees and then one employed a company to plant those trees. It had to get permission from the forest service to import those trees and plant them. It then got paid for doing that. We were given no control over from where the plants came. In many cases, where we might have desired to plant different species, we were told no and this is what would be planted.

The forest service, in the contract, set out for us and dictated how it was done. The forestry companies got paid. They were the ones which imported them but had to do so under licence from the forest service. Accordingly, responsibility lands with the forest service and its phytosanitary security. We believe it let us down completely.