Media release - December 14, 1999
Greenpeace activists today blocked a shipment of Interfor's Western Red Cedar from leaving a British Columbia rail yard en route to the United States. Two people dressed as bears (symbolizing the loss of grizzly habitat) attached themselves and a banner reading "Interfor Selling out Canada’s Cedar Rainforest" to a rail car loaded with Western Red Cedar. Another activist attached himself to a truck blocking the train’s access to the main line.
"Western Red Cedar is one of B.C.'s natural treasures," said
Greenpeace forest campaigner Gavin Edwards at the blockade site.
"Every rail car of cedar heading south represents more habitat loss
for grizzly and black bears. When the forests are gone, the bears
and the salmon will be gone. Alternatives exist and must be
implemented before it's too late."
The action coincides with the launch of a Western Red Cedar
campaign by the Coastal Rainforest Coalition (CRC), a coalition of
U.S. environmental groups, including Greenpeace USA, who have been
raising awareness of forestry concerns with buyers of B.C. wood
products. The CRC is sending mail-outs to over 100 U.S. companies
involved in re-manufacturing or selling cedar informing them of the
increasingly endangered status of cedar in B.C. This status makes
it no longer acceptable to use old-growth cedar unless it is
independently eco-certified.
"U.S. consumers need to hear the true cost of the cedar products
they purchase," explained CRC campaign director, Todd Paglia. "We
will be approaching cedar customers throughout the U.S. and
requesting that they not buy old-growth Western Red Cedar
products."
Approximately 6.25 million cubic metres (over 6 million
telephone poles) of the wood, valued for its tight grain and
durability, is logged every year in B.C. and used to make roof
shingles, decks, saunas, gazebos, garden furniture and other
products. U.S. buyers represent 66 percent of this market.
"The U.S. is the single largest importer of old growth lumber
from British Columbia," said Ilyse Hogue, Greenpeace U.S. Forest
Campaigner. "We have a unique and compelling responsibility to
assure that the products we buy are not at the cost of healthy
ecosystems. Ancient forests are global treasures. We have destroyed
most of them in this country, and now we are importing destruction
from across the border."
Greenpeace is appealing to manufacturers, retailers and
consumers to demand ecologically-responsible FSC- certified
alternatives (currently available for Northern California) and
other alternatives. These include a new pressure treated wood
manufactured in the Netherlands that has the weather-resistant
properties of cedar without the addition of toxic chemicals.