PRESS RELEASE
Homebuyers duped into buying Weyerhaeuser “green” products and homes
For Immediate Release:
April 12, 2006
“American Dream Native Nightmare” outdoor ad campaign rolls out April 10h in Montreal, Seattle and Toronto
San Francisco – A Rainforest Action Network report published today on FreeGrassy.org confirms that Weyerhaeuser building products and new homes marketed in the United States as “environmentally friendly” use wood clear-cut without consent from treaty-protected indigenous territory within Canada’s threatened Boreal Forest.
The report documents the movement of wood from massive clear-cut operations on the traditional territory of the Grassy Narrows First Nation community into new American homes marketed as “Built Green” by Quadrant Homes, a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser, the largest lumber company in the world. Despite decades of negotiations, environmental appeals, protests, and what has become the longest running road blockade in Canadian history, industrial loggers like Weyerhaeuser continue to use wood systematically extracted from ecologically sensitive old growth areas and destroy the traditional way of life of the Grassy Narrows indigenous community who have lived on the land since pre- Columbian times.
The report cites an independent, three year review of logging plans and practices on Grassy Narrows’ territory which found that current harvesting levels within the Whiskey Jack Forest cannot be sustained for even 20 years; the company’s estimate of available wood is based on unrealistic assumptions about how much the forest can produce each year; and harvest levels are too high to protect existing wildlife habitat, or to allow the restoration of degraded habitat conditions in the forest. One planned cut alone will clear 52,000 acres of forest- 62 times the size of New York’s Central Park.
Forest Management plans filed with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and excerpted in the report, attest that Weyerhaeuser uses half of the total volume logged from Grassy Narrows every year to make Timberstrand laminated strand lumber (LSL), an “environmentally sustainable” engineered wood product distributed widely throughout Canada and the Western United States. Builders including at least two Weyerhaeuser subsidiaries use LSL for flooring, structural, window, and door applications in new home construction nationwide. Photographs from the report show LSL products from Weyerhaeuser’s Kenora mill used in new homes advertised under Quadrant’s “Built Green” program near Seattle, WA.
A February 28, 2006 letter from the Grassy Narrows First Nation community demands that the chief executives of Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY) and Abitibi-Consolidated “immediately cease and desist from all logging and industrial resource extraction on our territory” without consent and asserts that decades of unsustainable logging has “poisoned our waters with mercury and other toxins, nearly eliminated our ability to practice our way of life, and robbed us of economic opportunities.”
(Copies of correspondence available upon request.)
UN Briefing Raises Grassy Narrows Human Rights Concerns On March 27, 2006 Amnesty International submitted a briefing to the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which affirms the Canadian government’s “obligation to uphold the rights of indigenous people.” Amnesty criticizes Canadian officials for allowing logging to proceed in Grassy Narrows over the clear opposition of the community and in violation of Indigenous rights protected by Treaties and other international law The briefing continues that Grassy Narrows’ “right to self-determination, to control their own life and future, and their right to freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources, are not being upheld resulting in the denial of other rights guaranteed in Part III of the Covenant.”
(Link to full briefing available in report.)
The Royal Proclamation of 1763, Treaty #3, and the Canadian Constitution all outline the rights of indigenous people to their traditional lands. An ongoing lawsuit between the members of Grassy Narrows First Nation, the Minister of Natural Resources and Abitibi-Consolidated claims that the community was not properly consulted or compensated by the company, and that Abitibi’s clear-cut practices are infringing on the ability of the people of Grassy Narrows to exercise their Treaty 3 right to hunt and trap on their traditional territory. The lawsuit, if successful, would revoke all current cutting rights on Grassy Narrows land north of the English river.
Grassy Narrows First Nation
The people of Grassy Narrows First Nation have lived on 2,500 square miles of land north of Kenora, Ontario for thousands of years. Nearly 50% of the community still sustain themselves from the land by hunting, trapping, and gathering medicine and berries. The old-growth habitat provided by these areas also supports animal species like the pine martin and woodland caribou which are critical to the ecological integrity of the area.
In the 1990s Weyerhaeuser fiber-supplier Abitibi dramatically increased logging rates in Grassy Narrows without the consent or proper consultation of the community- regularly clear-cutting huge tracts of land, spraying the land with herbicides and pesticides, and replanting with monoculture tree plantations.
Representatives from the Grassy Narrows community will be present at Weyerhaeuser’s annual shareholder meeting in Seattle on April 20 to raise these and other concerns with Weyerhaeuser’s CEO, Board, and shareholders. “American Dream- Native Nightmare” outdoor ads, which began appearing Monday in Seattle, Montreal, and Toronto, highlight the link between “green” homes and environmental destruction and human rights violations on Grassy Narrows’ territory began appearing on the streets of Seattle, Toronto, and Montreal on Monday.
Supporting Statements “The government and the logging industry have conspired to destroy much of what we hold sacred,” says Joseph B Fobister, Grassy Narrows business owner and community leader. “Our traditional values and culture are suffering and are headed towards extinction. This land and the forests that are an integral part of it have sustained our people for time immemorial. We watch as they disappear on the backs of logging trucks to paper mills all over the continent. We are left to deal with the environmental and sociological nightmare left behind following tree “harvesting.”
“The clear-cutting of the land, and the destruction of the forest is an attack on our people,” says Roberta Keesick, Grassy Narrows’ blockader, grandmother, and trapper. “The land is the basis of who we are. Our culture is a land based culture and the destruction of the land is the destruction of our culture. And we know that is in the plans. Weyerhaeuser doesn't want us on the land, they want us out of the way so they can take the resources. We can't allow them to carry on with this cultural genocide."
“Social responsibility doesn’t stop at the front door,” says Brant Olson, Old Growth Campaign Director at Rainforest Action Network. “Homebuyers and builders share an important responsibility with loggers, lumber companies, and governments to respect community rights and protect our planet’s last remaining old-growth forests.”
“Weyerhaeuser has not sought FSC certification of its forestlands, nor has it gained FSC Chain-of-Custody certifications for its vertical markets,” says Lynne Barker, Healthy Building Network. “Weyerhaeuser has instead chosen a defensive strategy and invested in costly and backward thinking efforts to discredit FSC and LEED (premier, national green building standard) and promote less rigorous alternatives. In addition to potential loss of market share in the green building industry (by far the fastest growing segment of the construction industry) Weyerhaeuser is squandering its reputation and leadership role, and risks long-term damage to its corporate reputation. Weyerhaeuser is being left behind as the real industry leaders are distinguishing themselves, expanding market share, and gaining profits.”
“Home buyers should see red when they hear “green” claims from Weyerhaeuser and industry greenwashing programs like the “Sustainable Forestry Initiative” and Canadian Standards Association,’ says Daniel Hall, Forest Ethics Corporate Action program Coordinator. “This ecologically devastating and socially irresponsible logging would not be allowed under a credible forestry program. Consumers should look to the Forest Stewardship Council for environmentally responsible forest products, and to the US Green Building Council for credible green building standards.”
"As reflected in FSC's principles, criteria, and standards indigenous people's rights are as vital to sustainable forestry as are ecological values,” says Michael P Washburn, PhD, Vice President of Marketing at Forest Stewardship Council US. “FSC certification is a tool for helping the market recognize when these core values are being addressed by companies. Failure to recognize the importance of these concerns reflects poorly on the company in question, the forest industry, and the buyers who accept wood coming from such a source."
"The degradation of our homeland by Weyerhaeuser and Abitibi is a clear violation of our aboriginal treaty rights under Treaty #3,” says Steve Fobister, Deputy Chief of Grassy Narrows Band Council. “For years we have been seeking a constructive solution to this untenable situation, but the response to our proposals has been ’talk and log’. This position is completely unacceptable to our people. We are prepared to take necessary actions to protect our Homeland from further desecration, to improve the health of our community and the forests we depend upon, and to obtain our fair share of the economic benefits that continue to flow from our forests."
“For years now, we have attempted to voice our concerns within this process with very little constructive response or progress towards desired benefits for the trappers,” explains Gabriel Fobister, Head of Grassy Narrows Trappers’ Council. “All we have seen is the demise of our way of life which disappears every time more cutting areas are extended to Abitibi and Weyerhaeuser. In despair our trappers are ending up in the streets in the cities to become homeless people and living off the soup lines.”
For more information, visit FreeGrassy.org. *Broadcast quality b-roll and hi-res, rights-free photos available*
