Willow's Pagan Place Pg. 13

Home depot is buying old growth wood. Home Depot
is a major force in destruction of old growth forests.
There are 700 stores selling products from endangered
forests. Home Depot fuels the destruction of ancient
forests by selling products made from old growth wood
Home Depot buys from several suppiers that are
cutting down some of the most endangered forests on
Earth, such as Georgia Pacific, cutting down endangered
tropical forests, International Forest Products and
Western Forest products, destroying British Columbia's
Great Bear Rainforest, and Universal Forest products,
one of the largest dealers in Old Growth wood.
Home Depot is an important link in the chain. They
can reduce pressure on remaining old growth forests
by getting out of the trade in Old growth wood.

Home Depot promised that they would phase out old
growth wood by 1992. They broke that promise
Then they promised again that they would phase out
old growth wood by 1997. An other broken promise.
Now, they promise again that they will phase out old
growth wood by 2002. Will they keep this latest promise?

2000
Subject: Alaska Home Depot is Really Bad
received: March 29, 2000
Alaska just recently got its first Hope Depot. Alaska has a huge
gardening population and there are little greenhouses and nurseries
around every corner. Alaska is still one of the few places that doesn't
have a lot of pests and plant diseases, well not any more. I think its
kind of a coincidence that the first season Home Depot arrived in Alaska
there was an outbreak of Late Blight of potatoes, the same disease that
struck Ireland in the 1860's. Experts say it was due to tomato plants or
seed potatoes brought in from out of state. Home Depot brought in
truckloads of these plants and seed potatoes from out of state and
outside the US prompting a ban on importing these plants from outside
Alaska by the Alaska Dept of Agriculture. Once the disease is here it is
here for good. Home Depot has had its effect on the last frontier too!
Not a good one either.

March 23 Kaufman and Broad Victory!! March 30th Old Growth Demo Cancelled
1999
Dec 19th Borneo Rain Forest on Verge of Total Destruction
Sept 2nd. Home Depot Applies for Permit to Kill Endangered Species
August 11th - RACINE COUNTY PULLS PLUG ON HOME DEPOT AFTER TESTIMONY: "HOME DEPOT SELLS OLD GROWTH WOOD"
WORLD-WIDE CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO COMBAT WTO ASSAULT ON LAST REMAINING FORESTS
June 30th - NFC, et.al., Files Lawsuit Against USFS & BLM to Stop Logging in PNW
June 7th - Julia Butterfly Going Strong in Vigil to Protect Redwoods One and A Half Years in a Tree.
May 26, 10:30 am - Home Depot Darth Vader with an award of anti-environmental excellence, the Golden Stump Award.
May 25th - Greenpeace activists installed The Home Depot's logo on a clear cut swath of ancient trees in British Columbia
May 4th FAN and the forests need your help!
April 20, 1999 - Top Level Commission: Forest Crisis Can Be Reversed
April 16, - HOME DEPOT TO BRAINWASH CHILDREN IN CLASSIC EARTHDAY "GREENWASH"
------

RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
For immediate release - March 11, 1999
Press contact - 415/398-4404
Mark Westlund:ranmedia@ran.org
Michael Brune: mbrune@ran.org

HOME DEPOT MISSED THE BOAT
WITH ECO-WOOD STRATEGY

PROTESTS SCHEDULED AT STORES ACROSS
U.S., CANADA ON SAINT PATRICK'S DAY

"Home Depot's voiced intention to increase supplies of eco-friendly wood
doesn't address the fundamental reason why protesters have been camped out
in front of their stores for the past year-and-a-half. Home Depot still
plans to sell products made from the planet's last remaining old growth
forests, and that's simply barbaric when a scant 20 percent of these ancient
forests still survive."

- Michael Brune, Old Growth Campaign Director

SAN FRANCISCO -- Environmentalists reacted with skepticism at news of Home
Depot's plans to increase the amount of environmentally certified forest
products available at the retail behemoth's nearly 800 stores. "I'm not sure
how valuable this will be, because Home Depot has made no plans to phase out
the egregious supply of old growth wood products the store currently sells,"
said Michael Brune, RAN's Old Growth Campaign Director.

In Vancouver, British Columbia, this week, Home Depot Canada president
Annette Verschuren told forestry industry executives that Home Depot had
joined the Certified Forest Products Council, a non-profit organization that
promotes forest products that have been examined from the seedling to the
shelf for environmental and social merits.

"Unless Home Depot stops selling old growth wood this gesture will be
meaningless," said RAN's Brune. "We don't intend to let Home Depot score a
public relations victory with this half-measure. On March 17 grassroots
environmental groups in over 100 locations across the U.S. and Canada will
be protesting at Home Depot stores, asking Home Depot to stop selling old
growth and "go green" in honor of Saint Patrick's Day."

Home Depot is the largest retailer of old growth wood products. The wide
array of old growth wood Home Depot carries includes cedar and Douglas fir
from the temperate rainforests of British Columbia, old growth lauan and
ramin from Southeast Asia, and mahogany from the Amazon.

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

Campaign History

In spring of 1997, Home Depot responded to growing grassroots pressure and agreed to stop selling any old growth redwood products but refused to address the larger issue of the rest of their old growth rainforest wood products. A full 19 months after the company said they would stop selling old growth redwood, investigations by area building professionals revealed that Home Depot was still selling old growth redwood. Based on these investigations, we believe this wood originated from the ancient temperate rainforests of Headwaters in northern California.

At a meeting with Home Depot in April 1998, they admitted that they never enforced their old growth redwood policy, but promised to develop a comprehensive program to go completely old growth free by June 1, 1998. They not only missed their own self-imposed June 1st deadline, but also failed return phone calls and email messages for nearly two months-- that is until late August, when the first demonstration that featured civil disobedience hit Home Depot in northern California. It was followed by another direct action at their headquarters in Atlanta Georgia. After a year of these types of actions, Home Depot finally admitted that a problem existed and held a press conference where they announced that they would stop selling wood from endangered forests by the end of 2002.

Home Depot is the largest retailer of old-growth rainforest 
wood in the U.S. In the past few years, they have made 
several forest-conservation-related promises that have
kept environmental organizations at bay. They have not
lived up to those promises. ARC, and other member of the
Stealing Home Coalition, say enough is enough.
The state of the worlds forests is precarious at best 
and cannot wait for Home Depot.

August 26, 1999. Victory? Home Depot CEO acknowledges
wood problem and commits to phasing out old growth wood

 	
What Wood Products Do They Sell?
Lumber, doors, hot tubs, wheelbarrows, rakes, paint brushes 
and dowels sold at The Home Depot are all the products 
of old growth tropical and temperate rainforest 
logging. Mahogany,lauan,ramin, cedar, fir, and spruce are 
among those old growth rainforest species being destroyed
 for products sold at The Home Depot.

The rainforest trees being felled for pre-hung mahogany 
doors sold at the Home Depot can be hundeds of years old 
and carry as many as 1200 species of flora and fauna 
on a single tree. An estimated 80% of logging activities
in the Brazilian Amazon- the source of most mahogany imports
--are illegal, and numerous Amazon indians have been
killed by mahogany loggers.

Plywood and doors are made from lauan taken from the 
rainforests of Indonesia. Logging there has led to
 massive forest fires and threatens to drive orangutans 
and other endangered species to extinction. Indigenous
 peoples have been fighting the destruction of their 
homeland at the hands of logging companies for decades.

Campaign History
In spring of 1997, Home Depot responded to growing 
grassroots pressure and agreed to stop selling any old growth
 redwood products but refused to address
 the larger issue of the rest of their old growth rainforest
 wood products. A full 19 months after the company said they 
would stop selling old growth redwood, investigations by 
area building professionals have revealed that Home Depot is 
indeed still selling it. Based on these investigations, 
we believe this wood originates from the ancient temperate
 rainforests of Headwaters in northern California.

Many demonstrations took place during World Rainforest
 Week last year, when demonstrations were held at Home
 Depots in more than 30 states. In December 1997, ARC held
a demonstration at the Hollywood Home Depot and featured 
the first ever Rainforest Graveyard Tour through the store.
 In addition, citizens from around the world have sent 
literally thousands of letters and postcards to Home Depot 
in the past year urging them to commit to going old growth
 free. These activities resulted in a series of conference 
calls and meetings between Rainforest Action Network and
Home Depot last fall and into this spring.

At a meeting with Home Depot in April, 1998, they admitted 
that they never enforced their old growth redwood policy,
 but promised to develop a comprehensive program to go 
completely old growth free by June 1, 1998. They not only 
missed their own self-imposed June 1st deadline, but did not 
even return phone calls and email messages for nearly two 
months-- that is until late August, when the first demonstration
 that featured civil disobedience hit Home Depot in northern 
California. It was followed by another direct action at their 
headquarters in Atlanta Georgia. They have begun to realize 
that until they make this commitment, and start taking steps 
to make it a company priority, the grassroots
will be hard at work to make it a priority for them!

Please write a letter to Home Depot about your concerns
 for the forests and about their role in destroying it.

Write to: 
Mr. Arthur Blank
Chief Executive Officer
The Home Depot, Inc.,
2455 Paces Ferry Rd., N.W, GA 30339
FAX: 770-384-3040
arthur_blank@homedepot.com


Please send copies of the letter to Kim Woodbury, Manager of Environmental Marketing 
kim_woodbury@homedepot.com

and Bernie Marcus, Chairman of the Board 
bernard_marcus@homedepot.com

Let Home Despot know how you feel about the forests
by telling them that you are boycotting Home Despot