Rainforest Action Network Activists Hang Banner

Wake Up Weyerhaeuser: Protect Forests Now!

Activists Brave Dizzying Heights And Unfurl Banner
To Protest Wanton Destruction of Endangered Old-Growth Forests

Seattle, WA — This morning environmental activists braved dizzying heights in downtown Seattle to unfurl a 2,400 square foot banner reading “Wake Up Weyerhaeuser: Protect Forests Now.” The non-violent direct action marks the launch of an international Consumer Democracy Campaign to transform the barbaric environmental practices of Washington-based logging giant Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY), the number one destroyer of old-growth forests in North America. The campaign follows Rainforest Action Network’s recent victory with Boise Cascade Corporation (NYSE: BCC) that resulted in the company’s withdrawal from old-growth forests in the United States and adoption of a plan to exit endangered forests worldwide. Forest Action Network is the Canadian coalition partner, and in Alberta, the campaign is supported by the Sierra Club of Canada’s Bighorn Country Campaign.

In a September 2003 letter to Weyerhaeuser CEO Steven Rogel, Rainforest Action Network executive director Michael Brune conveyed growing market demands for the company to completely phase out all logging and procurement of wood products from endangered and old-growth forests globally; to cease conversion of biologically rich native forests into ecologically bankrupt tree farms; to cease experimentation with genetically modified trees; and to halt all logging on U.S. taxpayer-owned public lands. Rainforest Action Network is also asking the company to implement a full chain-of-custody program for all its operations and to attain Forest Stewardship Council certification, the best independent standard in sustainable forestry.

Throughout the United States, Weyerhaeuser annually logs an average of over 70,000 acres on taxpayer-owned public lands. In the Southeastern U.S., in areas like Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau, Weyerhaeuser is actively clear-cutting biologically diverse hardwood forests and converting them into fast-growing, monoculture tree farms, an ecological disaster that the NRDC has dubbed the “The Tennessee Tree Massacre.” Throughout the Canadian boreal region, one of the most important forest ecosystems on Earth, Weyerhaeuser has already destroyed forests that take several hundred years to mature because of the cool, northern climate. More than 50,000 square miles of Canadian public lands lay open to Weyerhaeuser’s chainsaws, and each year it destroys 160,000 acres, primarily for export to the U.S. market. Weyerhaeuser currently has no meaningful company-wide environmental policy covering all its logging operations and wood procurement.

“We are asking Weyerhaeuser to be an environmentally ethical business in all of the 44 states and 18 countries in which it operates, not just those where local public pressure has forced them to the table,” said Jennifer Krill, director of Rainforest Action Network’s Old Growth Campaign. “The world’s last remaining old-growth forests are in a state of crisis and need more than piece-meal compromises. If left intact, these forests can continue to provide us with a steady supply of clean air and pure water, invaluable resources that we must safeguard for future generations. If left to companies like Weyerhaeuser, every last ancient tree will get turned into two-by-fours and grocery bags.”

“Weyerhaeuser is in denial,” said Sharon Smith, organizer of Rainforest Action Network’s Old Growth Campaign. “American business can not afford any more environmental scandals abroad. The global marketplace is changing, and the era of international tolerance for U.S. clear-cuts and oil spills is coming to an end. This is a wake-up call that destroying old-growth forests is an immoral and outdated practice. Any company that is still destroying old-growth forests today is on the wrong side of history.”
"Weyerhaeuser is one of the largest destroyers of Canada's vastly under-protected boreal forests, the second largest intact forest region in the world,” said Greg Higgs of Forest Action Network. “Woodland caribou and other threatened species call this their home. It is a crime to see such magnificent forests destroyed for short-term profit."

The Weyerhaeuser Company is one of the world’s largest forest products companies with annual sales of over $19 billion. It owns or has long-term leases to over 43 million acres of forestland; maintains large-scale operations in endangered areas through South America and Southeast Asia.

Since 1985, Rainforest Action Network and a global movement of grassroots activists and allies have campaigned to transform the relationship between economy and ecology in the global marketplace. The group has played a role in helping companies including Citigroup, Boise Cascade, Home Depot, Kinko’s, Mitsubishi, Burger King, Lowe’s, Hallmark, Hewlett Packard, Centex Homes, KB Home, Levi-Strauss and over 400 others understand and introduce environmental ethics to their bottom line. In the grand tradition of American patriots, suffragists and activists, Rainforest Action Network is one of the leading public interest organizations using education, grassroots organizing and non-violent direct action to end crimes against the environment.

The world’s forests are in a state of crisis and Americans prefer protection.

- 80 percent of the world’s intact old-growth forests have been destroyed or degraded, much within recent decades. (World Resources Institute)

- Only 4 percent of U.S. old-growth forests remain intact. (Native Forests Council)

- At least 37.5 million acres of rainforest are lost annually. (United Nations)

- Indonesia’s critically endangered rainforests are “disappearing at a rate equivalent to the area of 300 soccer fields every hour.” (BusinessWeek)

- 70 percent of Americans say they prefer to purchase from companies with environmentally ethical practices. (American Demographics)

- 9 in 10 Americans favor wilderness protection. (Los Angeles Times)

Tropical rainforests contain at least half of all life on Earth. Boreal forests play an important role in global climate regulation and provide habitat for rare and endangered species. Global deforestation coupled with climate destabilization is causing a mass extinction of life, unparalleled since the disappearance of the dinosaurs.

Due to the Joint Solution Process in the Great Bear Rainforests of British Columbia, Rainforest Action Network is not targeting Weyerhaeuser’s BC operations.

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Related Links:
   · WakeUpWeyCo.com
   · Old Growth Campaign



Rainforest Action Network (RAN) works to protect the Earth's rainforests and support the rights of their
inhabitants through education,grassroots organizing and non-violent direct action.

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