The Editor, Sir:

I am the founder (July 1988) of the Portland Environment Protec-tion Association (PEPA) and President Emeritus of that organisation and I am deeply concerned at the naive attempt by the National Planning Agency (NEPA) to justify an official birdshooting season barely two weeks after the passing of a major hurricane which negatively affected the entire island.

After the passing of Hurricane Ivan, PEPA, under the very able direction of its current president, Captain John Lamey, organised a rehabilitation project for the regeneration of the badly-depleted bird population of the parish, with the assistance of the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica, schools and youth groups across the parish.

I would have thought that this is what NEPA would have been doing after Hurricane Dean, not organising their further extinction. I wonder who conducted those nebulous "studies" that allowed this travesty to take place. What were their credentials? What were their motives?

Birds suffer enormously from hurricanes and the losses are, inevitably, severe. Those that survive are disoriented and storm-weary as they struggle to survive amid defoliated trees, destroyed nesting areas, loss of protective cover and reduced feeding trees.

Declaring a shooting season under these emergency conditions is clearly ridiculous, and I would like to know how NEPA could ever claim to be protectors of anything, much less our wildlife, watersheds and wetlands.

As the Bible so wisely tells us, "By their works ye shall know them".

I am, etc.,

MARGUERITE GAURON

P.O. Nox 199

Port Antonio