EDITOR:
One thing our government has done right: through the Alternative Land Use Services program, they are providing some funding for farmers who wait until after July 15th to harvest their hay.
I want to offer my personal thanks to any farmers who took advantage of this program and waited till after July 15th this year, and my encouragement to all others to do the same next year. I can remember when I couldn't go for a summer walk without hearing the marvelous song of the bobolink. Now they're on the endangered species list, and the main reason is the switch by farmers to cutting hay early so they can get two cuts to a field.
The bobolink, a delightful black bird with a head so golden it can disappear in a field of dandelions, nests in open fields of grass and cannot, unfortunately, tell the difference between an open field of grass used only by mice and other wildlife and one that's being raised for harvest. Like the English lark, it sings on the wing, so its song, which is like a cascade of bells, seems to be falling from the sky. It really is not something we should allow to disappear.
So, thank you, PEI government, for the Alternative Land Use Services program, and thank you, all you intelligent and nature-loving farmers who put off your hay harvest until after the middle of July, when the young birds can fly.
Sharon Leighton,
Bedeque