Home Depot Expansion Plans Challenged in California and Wisconsin
12/7/98
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Home Depot Expansion Plans Challenged in California and Wisconsin
Source: Rainforest Action Network
Status: Distribute freely with proper credit to source
Date: 12/7/98
Press Contacts -
Mark Westlund: ranmedia@ran.org
Michael Brunn: mbrune@ran.org
THE DEBATE OVER ENDING THE USE OF OLD GROWTH WOOD PLAYS OUT IN CITY
PLANNING COMMISSIONS
HOME DEPOT EXPANSION PLANS CHALLENGED IN SACRAMENTO, CA, AND MADISON, WI
The national debate over the use and sales of wood old growth products is
moving to a new forum. Regional planning commissions in both Sacramento,
CA, and Madison, WI, are hearing testimony today that challenges expansion
plans by do-it-yourself giant Home Depot. Home Depot, with over 700
stores in North America, is the world's largest retailer of old growth
wood products.
In Madison, a key member of the city Plan Commission is working to prevent
Home Depot from selling old growth wood products at two new stores slated
for the area. The Commission votes on whether to approve Home Depot's
expansion plans this evening.
Commission Vice Chairman Stuart Levitan intends to attach conditions to
site approvals that include asking Home Depot to phase out all old growth
wood products, noting that a standard for new plans is that business
operations cannot be detrimental to the general welfare. Levitan told the
Capital Times newspaper "there are those who believe that the continuing
destruction of old growth forests irreparably damages the general
welfare."
In California, Rainforest Action Network's Old Growth Campaign director
Michael Brune and Brian Vincent of American Lands Alliance will testify at
the hearing of the Sacramento County Project Planning Commission, after
meeting individually with Commission member Glen Delman. The public
hearing on Home Depot's proposed store at Roseville & Antelope Roads in
Sacramento is this afternoon at 5:30 PM, at the Board of Supervisors
Chambers, 700 H Street, suite1450.
"In a time when only 22 percent of the world's original old growth forests
remain, continuing the sales of old growth wood is simply barbaric," said
Mr. Brune. "Whether you approach the issue economically, ecologically or
ethically, it's just not a sound business practice to sell old growth
wood."
Among the wide array of old growth wood products Home Depot carries are
old growth lauan plywood from Southeast Asia, dowels and tools handles
made of the old growth tropical wood ramin, mahogany from the Amazon, and
lumber from the ancient temperate rainforests of British Columbia.