As a bush plane pilot in northern Ontario, Joel Theriault has seen firsthand the effect herbicides have on forests in the region. “There’s something very wrong when you can see a mile in each direction and you can fly for weeks over these areas and not see a bear, and not see a wolf, and not see a moose,” he said. In the late summer and early fall, forestry companies and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry spray herbicides over wooded areas that are cultivated for their timber. “They’re spraying them to eliminate all of the competition for sunlight for the replanted conifer trees,” said Theriault. …In an email to CBC News, Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry spokesperson Marcela Mayo said herbicides are only applied to 0.2 per cent of the managed forested areas in Ontario every year.