Rainforest Action Network



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		MARCH 15, 1999 7:21 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Rainforest Action Network Mark Westlund: ranmedia@ran.org Michael Brune: mbrune@ran.org Telephone: 415/398-4404

		Enviros to Tell Home Depot to "Go Green" for St. Patrick's Day at over 150 U.S., Canada Locations; Grassroots Groundswell to Protect Old Growth Forests is Largest of its Kind

		SAN FRANCISCO - March 15 - On a day when much of the country will be "wearing the green," environmental activists at over 150 locations across the U.S. and Canada will be asking home improvement behemoth Home Depot to "go green" for Saint Patrick's Day by phasing out sales of old growth wood products. "This is huge," said RAN Old Growth Campaign Director Michael Brune; "each week that Home Depot refuses to stop selling wood from our last ancient forests once-and-for-all, more and more people around the country join the campaign. People are passionate about old growth forests." While many companies have stopped using and selling old growth wood, Home Depot remains the largest retailer of these products. The wide array of old growth wood Home Depot carries includes cedar and Douglas fir from the temperate rainforests of British Columbia, redwood from California, lauan and ramin from Southeast Asia, and mahogany from the Amazon. "When a scant 20 percent of our ancient forests survive worldwide, and only about 4 percent in the United States," said RAN's Brune, "Home Depot's continued sales of products made from the planet's last remaining old growth forests is simply barbaric." Protestors on Saint Patrick's Day are planning colorful, creative and hard-hitting demonstrations drawing from the full range of the activist's palate. In addition to street theater performances in front of Home Depot stores, and banners, placards, drumming and chanting, many of the demonstrations will include "Dead Rainforest Tours." Here, tour guides lead customers to the final resting-places of ancient trees - now lumber, paneling and plywood - from the Amazon, British Columbia and Southeast Asia. Locations of these protests include Home Depot stores in Fairfield, AL; Tuscaloosa, AL; Batesville, AZ; Emeryville, CA; Marina del Rey, CA; Sacramento, CA; Salinas, CA; San Francisco, CA; Boulder, CO; Hotchkiss, CO; Trumbull, CT; Washington, D.C.; Newark, DE; Gainesville, FL; Atlanta, GA; Tucker, GA; Grinnell, IA; Coeur d'Alene, ID; Blue Island, IL; Grinnel, IA; Chicago, IL; Boston, MA; Springfield, MA; Waltham, MA; Catonsville, MD; College Park, MD; Gaithersburg, MD; Silver Spring, MD; Waterville, ME; Ann Arbor, MI; Detroit, MI; Big Woods, MN; Collegeville, MN; Minneapolis, MN; Saint Cloud, MN; Chappel Hill, NC; Newington, NH; Pomona, NJ; Albuquerque, NM; Brooklyn, NY; Buffalo, NY; Huntington, NY; Ithaca, NY; New Rochelle, NY; Poughkeepsie, NY; Rochester, NY; Cleveland, OH; North Olmstead, OH; Corvalis, OR; Salem, OR; Allentown, PA; Conshohocken, PA; Mechanicsburg, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Philadelphia, PA; Elizabeth, RI; Columbia, SC; Chattanooga, TN; El Paso, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Memphis, TX; Salt Lake City, UT; Fairfax, VA; Williston, VT; Seattle, WA; Ashland, WI; Janesville; Vancouver, British Columbia; Toronto, Ontario; Amherst, Nova Scotia; and Santiago, Chile. This international "day of action" follows on the heels of Home Depot's announced plans to stock more eco-friendly forest products at its nearly 800 stores, a ploy that many environmentalists fear is an attempt to "greenwash" the company image. "Home Depot's scheme misses the point," said RAN's Brune. "It's cynical for Home Depot to peddle small amounts of ecologically certified wood while it freely continues selling wood ripped from the heart of our most threatened ancient forests. It's time for Home Depot to catch up with industry leaders and phase out of old growth sales immediately." In December 1998, 27 U.S. corporations - including IBM, Dell, Kinko's, Nike, 3M, Levi-Strauss, Mitsubishi Motors America, Mitsubishi Electric America, and others - announced their commitment to stop selling or using old growth wood. Europe's largest home improvement center, B&Q, has nearly completed removing old growth wood from its shelves. Findings from a recent public opinion poll indicate that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe it is wrong to sell or purchase products made out of old growth forest wood. Nearly three out of five believe that old growth logging should be banned outright, and forty-four percent say they would be less likely to patronize a company if they learned that company uses or sells old growth products. The poll was conducted for RAN by Yankelovich Partners, one of the nation's most respected polling organizations, who regularly conduct polls for Time Magazine and CNN. ###