October 17, 1998

Fort Mill, SC— Environmentalists from all over the southeast are converging upon the newly opened southeastern headquarters of Willamette Industries, one of the largest forest products companies in the country Monday, October 19 from 1-2 PM, just off exit 85 on I-77, one block to the east. The protesters will be holding banners and signs and several people will be speaking including Danna Smith of the Dogwood Alliance, a group of about 50 organizations fighting wood chip mills.

Chip mills grind up trees into quarter-sized chips for paper and particle board, and in the process, destroy 1.2 million acres of southeastern forests. There has been a dramatic shift in the wood products industry from the Pacific Northwest to the Southeast in the past 10-15 years, as is evidenced by the Oregon-based Willamette's new headquarters. Since 1985, 108 of the 140 chip mills in operation in the Southeast have sprung up.

Willamette is particularly notorious because of the recent opening of their chip mill in Union Mills, NC despite intense local opposition. This mill and a new mill in Missouri will feed chips to an expanded Willamette paper mill in Hawesville, KY.

Forest activists demand Willamette: 1) Stop all clearcutting; 2) Stop logging on public lands; 3) Support the NC and region-wide chip mill studies; 4) Agree to a moratorium on all new chip mills until the studies are complete; and 5) Stop cutting trees for paper. Unused portions of agricultural crops and recycled fiber can be used instead of virgin fiber. The protesters are asking consumers to greatly reduce their paper and wood consumption and buy products from non-virgin sources when paper must be used.

"Our southern Appalachian forests are some of the most biodiverse ecosystems in North America, but we're destroying them for junk mail, toilet paper, and grocery bags," says EarthCulture's Rick Spencer. "Over 100 forest-dwelling species are driven to extinction every single day. Are paper plates worth it?"

"Willamette is clearcutting our National Forests and old family land in the Southeast, but they're not giving communities anything in return except for stumps," says Laura Elmo of the Asheville-based Katuah Earth First! "Only about 5-10 people are employed at a chip mill and each mill can go through about 10,000 acres of forest each year. A saw mill cutting lumber or wood for the furniture industry will employ 10 times as many people and go through less wood, so our forests and economies are being trashed."