The Old Growth Rainforests of Home Depot
6/8/98
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: The Old Growth Rainforests of Home Depot
Source: Rainforest Relief and Action Resource Center
Status: Distribute freely with proper credit to source
Date: 6/8/98
Byline: Tim Keating with Kim Mizrahi
4th in the *Rainforest Relief Reports* series of occasional papers.
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Home Depot has become the largest "lumber yard" in
the United States, claiming over 10% of the U.S. "home improvement" market
alone. However, this meteoric rise in sales has not been without costs. Home
Depot is one of the largest single retailers of old growth rainforest wood and
wood products on Earth.
The Elimination of Rainforests
Although the values and benefits of rainforests are well documented, they
continue to be eliminated. Conversion to cash crops such as beef, bananas,
coffee and cacao and logging, mining and oil drilling continue to destroy these
vital and fragile forests. Among those most responsible is the rainforest
timber trade. Logging is the greatest factor in the loss of rainforests as new
roads provide access and lead to clearing. Due to this loss, *each day,
hundreds* of species of rare plants, animals, insects and small organisms
become extinct, *being driven forever from the Earth* by human ignorance and
greed.
Rainforest destruction contributes 25 to 30% of global warming gases to the
atmosphere, thus adding substantially to the warming of the Earth.
Numerous cures for human ailments have been discovered in rainforests, and more
are being researched right now. However, we have already lost one potential
cure for aids to rapacious logging for plywood production in Malaysia.
Temperate Zone rainforests are also highly endangered. One of the rarest
ecosystems on Earth, temperate rainforest are being clearcut into oblivion,
replaced by tree farms. These incredibly rich habitats for bears, salmon and
thousands of other species, are being eliminated for timber.
The loss of rainforest is the greatest catastrophe in human history, and it is
preventable.
The Role of Logging
The demand for rainforest woods is spurring illegal and unsustainable logging
operations that degrade and destroy these fragile ecosystems and threaten the
livelihood of indigenous peoples. Indians have even been killed by loggers
seeking timber.
Tropical rainforest hardwoods are imported into the U.S. as plywood, veneers or
paneling or lumber, or as finished items such as furniture, doors, mouldings,
picture frames and flooring.
The United States is the second largest importer of tropical rainforest
hardwoods. Is it worth the loss of these essential forests so we can save $4 on
a sheet of plywood?
Temperate rainforests are being logged for interior paneling, exterior siding,
two-by-fours, plywood and hot tubs.
What Types of Rainforest Wood Does Home Depot Sell?
Lauan
Also called luan, meranti or Philippine Mahogany, lauan is the term that is now
used to denote any tropical hardwood plywood. Actual lauan trees are native to
the former rainforests of the Philippines, but have become nearly commercially
extinct. Most tropical plywood now comes from the shrinking (and burning)
rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia and is sometimes called meranti. All
tropical plywood may be composed any one or two of hundreds of different
species, all lumped into the same term, either lauan, meranti or Philippine
mahogany. These woods have no relation to mahogany at all (the name was thought
up by the US Forest Service to sell more plywood from the Philippines).
Tropical plywood is the most commonly imported tropical hardwood, entering the
U.S. as plywood sheets, veneers, door skins and furniture. Plywood makes up
80% of U.S. tropical hardwood imports. Lauan or meranti is poor- to medium-
quality wood with a range of color from red to near white.
Lauan is highly undervalued, as Asian logging firms have cleared through
millions of hectares of rainforest since the 1950s. Philippines, once the
largest exporter, is now over 80% deforested. Thailand, once a large producer,
is also 80% deforested. Malaysia and Indonesia, both recent top exporters of
tropical plywood, have each lost half their forests to logging and consequent
deforestation.
Indigenous peoples in each of these countries have attempted to stand in the
way of the slaughter of their forests, but to little avail. In Malaysia, the
army has beaten and arrested many indigenous Penan as they have attempted to
block the ravaging of their homelands by Japanese logging firms and the
Malaysian government.
In the Philippines, activists have been targeted for assassination by illegal
loggers seeking to cut the few remaining lauan trees on private lands.
Undervalued and sold very cheaply, the real cost of lauan is extremely high.
Home Depot sells lauan plywood in the form of all-lauan plywood sheets of
varying thicknesses (in the L.A. store, from La Mirada DC/Taraga Pacific),
interior hollow-core doors, lauan-faced softwood plywood sheets (Roseburg
Forest Products), and paneling.
Home Depot sells solid lauan (or other related species of Southeast Asian
rainforest hardwoods in the *Shorea* group) as handles on wheelbarrows (True
Temper) and pre-hung front doors (Main Door Corp., Gardena, CA) (fraudulently
sold as "mahogany").
Mahogany
A beautiful dark wood with a reddish color and fine grain, the majority of
mahogany on the market today is taken illegally from rainforests in Brazil and
Bolivia. Outlaw timber companies invade indigenous reserves, park and nature
preserves destroying not only the fragile forests, but the homelands of
indigenous tribal peoples. Tree poachers punch new roads into pristine
forests, cut valuable trees, transport the wood to middlemen and exporters who
in turn sell it to importers in the U.S., Europe and Japan. The U.S. is the
world's leading importer of mahogany.
Smaller volumes of mahogany are imported from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Belize and
a few other Central and South American rainforest countries.
The Brazilian Intelligence Agency has reported that 80% of logging in Brazil is
illegal. Two agencies in Brazil have declared South American mahogany within
Brazil (the largest range) to be endangered.
True American mahogany is commercially extinct from its native areas in the
Caribbean.
When we buy mahogany doors, paneling or furniture, we participate in driving
forests, endangered species and human cultures into extinction.
Home Depot sells pre-hung doors made from South American (bigleaf) mahogany.
Ramin
Ramin is a blond-colored hardwood native to swamp rainforests of the island of
Borneo (Malaysia and Indonesia). These forests have been hammered by loggers
since the early 1980s and are nearing extinction. Even though ramin is
considered endangered, it is being logged at ever-increasing rates, as it is
considered highly valuable. Ramin is used extensively for furniture, dowel,
tool handles, and other small items like drying racks.
Buying ramin or ramin-containing items perpetuates a demand that keeps the
value of this tree high, thus continuing to encourage the illegal logging of
this endangered species.
Home Depot sells ramin as dowels and as handles for tools manufactured in
Southeast Asia (usually Thailand or Taiwan). The handles in the Wall Covering
Kit, the Barrel Seam Roller and the Smoother Brush, all from Padco (Thailand)
are ramin.
Cedar
Native to temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest from northern
California to Alaska, cedar trees are one of the oldest forms of life in the
Pacific coastal temperate rainforests. Cedar trees often reach over 800 years
old, with trees over 1,000 year old not uncommon. There are three species
commonly found, Western Red Cedar, Yellow cedar and Alaskan cedar.
Cedar is a highly rot-resistant softwood (cone-bearing tree) and has been used
for thousands of years by native peoples in the region for longhouse
construction, racks, baskets, boats and totems. Out of respect for these
"grandfathers of the forest", when natives cut a cedar tree, they would turn
away as it fell to allow the spirit of the tree to escape back into the forest.
More recently, cedar has come into favor for boardwalks, decks, shingles,
interior paneling, window boxes, play sets, fencing, animal bedding and mulch,
and is being cut indiscriminately everywhere it is found.
Most cedar sold in the US is now taken from British Columbia's rainforests, as
large cedar trees have been virtually eliminated from the U.S. Ninety-eight
percent of logging in BC is in old-growth forests, so all BC wood products
should be avoided unless they come from independently certified operations.
When we lose old-growth cedar, we lose one of the most ancient members of the
rainforest. It is shameful to use these massive giants for frivolous things
such as gerbil bedding.
Home Depot sells cedar as interior tongue-and-groove planking, exterior
shingles, shims and garden trellises (Lattice Top Gate, Universal Forest).
Redwood
Attaining a height of 280 feet, redwoods are the true giants of the west.
Native and endemic (that is, found nowhere else) to northern California,
Redwoods are a "softwood" (cone-bearing tree) with a red-colored heartwood that
is highly rot-resistant.
Redwoods have been logged to near oblivion in their entire range. Only 3% of
the original old-growth redwoods remain.
Recently, the Maxxam Corporation purchase a family-owned lumber operation that
had been logging selectively and fairly sustainably on their lands for
generations. Included on their privately-owned lands were 60,000 acres of old-
growth redwood groves.
In a hostile takeover, Maxxam obtained controlling interest in the company and
began to liquidate its assets to pay off junk bond debt accrued in the late
'80s. Those assets include the redwoods.
Home Depot sells redwood dimensional lumber as 2x4s and planking in a variety
of dimensions (Louisiana Pacific).
Douglas Fir
This blond-colored softwood is native to the temperate rainforests of North
America.
While much of the replanting of clearcut western forests has been done using
Douglas fir, old growth "Doug" firs are still being logged in the U.S. and
Canada. Because mills will accept old growth trees along with second growth
(most actuall prefer old growth), it is difficult to specify companies or
products. However, one can often differentiate old growth from second growth
(replanted) by observing the grain. Old growth trees usually have a very tight
(less than a millimeter width) grain. Grain is lines or patterns in wood
usually caused by seasonal variations in growth. Also called "rings" one can
tell how fast a tree grew by how far apart each ring is from the next. Tight
rings mean slow growth, wide rings mean faster growth.
In old growth forests, among competing trees and varying light and other
conditions, trees usually grow much more slowly than they do in an artificial
replanted situation.
A second growth Douglas Fir may get as large at 40 years as a 100 year old tree
would be in a natural old growth forest situation.
Home Depot sells Douglas Fir with observed old growth grain as exterior doors
(Morgan Northwoods Door) and 2x4s.
2x4s and Softwood Plywood
Much of the wood being consumed in the U.S. actually comes from Canada, with a
substantial portion coming from the West coast province of British Columbia
(BC).
BC currently holds about half of North America's coastal temperate rainforests,
an ecosystem type that once extended from northern California to Alaska. Much
of the coastal temperate rainforests in California, Oregon and Washington have
been logged to oblivion and those in Alaska and BC are under heavy pressure
from the timber industry.
About 40% of U.S. 2x4s come from British Columbia (mostly rainforest areas) and
a similar percentage of plywood. As stated above, 98% of logging in BC is
clearcutting of old growth forests.
While it is at this time impossible to say *which* 2x4s are from BC, one should
the large percentage that are and act accordingly.
Home Depot and Rainforests
Tragically, Home Depot and other home improvement centers sell large quantities
of tropical and temperate rainforest wood and rainforest wood-containing
products.
What type of rainforest wood have you bought from Home Depot?
What Should I Do?
As alternatives to buying rainforest wood from Home Depot, consider certified
sustainable woods*, recycled plastic lumber* (for poles, decks, garden ties,
fencing or trellises) or other recycled materials (such as steel) or salvaged
woods. Consider borrowing tools from neighbors, or buying used tools at flea
markets and garage sales.
*For further information on wood from independently certified operations,
salvage or recycled plastic lumber, contact Rainforest Relief.
RAINFOREST RELIEF
P.O. Box 150566
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 832-6775
relief@igc.apc.org
P.O. Box 14131
Portland, OR 97293
(503) 236-3031 (Portland)
(541) 757-0084 (Corvallis)