Boise Cascade "Rap Sheet"
3/16/96
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/** econ.boycotts: 269.0 **/
** Topic: Boise Cascade "Rap Sheet" **
** Written 2:03 PM Mar 12, 1996 by kwood in cdp:econ.boycotts **
SISKIYOU REGIONAL EDUCATION PROJECT
PO Box 220
Cave Junction, OR 97523
siskiyou@igc.apc.org
(Siskiyou Project called a boycott of Boise Cascade in the fall of
1994.)
BOISE CASCADE RAP SHEET
Release Date: December 19, 1995
This document chronicles Boise Cascade's record of environmental
and social wrongdoing. Every attempt has been made to reference
this information and to check it for accuracy. Siskiyou Project
intends to keep this document updated; please contact us if you
have additional information.
RAPACIOUS LOGGING PRACTICES:
Roadless Area Sales:
Cuddy Mountain, Idaho: a 43,000 acre roadless area on the scenic
rim of Hells Canyon. The sale contains a 350-year-old stand of old
growth yellow pine. The sale is opposed by Dr. Art Partridge of
Idaho State University and by Dr. William Perry of Oregon State
University. Source: Memo from Ron Mitchell, Idaho Sporting
Congress, 11/27/95.
Patrick Butte/French Creek, Idaho: a salvage rider sale - the
Elkhorn timber sale - will divide this 140,000 acre roadless area.
Source: Conversation with J. McCarthy, Idaho Conservation League,
11/20/95.
Sugarloaf, Oregon: Boise Cascades logging of this bitterly fought
timber sale in southern Oregon resulted in over 200 arrests in
1995, including an Audubon Society vice president and a former
congressman. The company paid over $200,000 to the Josephine
County Sheriffs Department to patrol the 35-square-mile public
closure around the sale, and to arrest protesters. They
collaborated with the Forest Service to paint a false picture to
the public of a benign forest health logging operation which they
claimed would decrease the risk of forest fire. After the logging
was completed, residents found that almost all the large, fire-
resistant overstory old-growth trees had been cut, while
large thickets of fire-prone white fir remain. It was Boise
Cascades purchase of this sale which led to the Siskiyou Projects
announcement of the boycott.
Idaho Scandals:
Boise River Wildfire Recovery Project: At 257mmbf, this is the
largest salvage sale in recent history. The area was logged in
previous 2 years, then it burned in 1994, and the Forest Service
allowed Boise Cascade in to log it again. Logging operations began
in July 1995. Once again (see Foothills), helicopter logging was
changed to tractor/jammer logging. On 8/22/95 a modest rainstorm
blew out the roads and burned & logged areas, sending 400,000 tons
of mud into the N. Fork Boise River, destroying the bull trout.
Source: Memo from Ron Mitchell, Idaho Sporting Congress, 11/27/95
South Fork Salmon Sale: The South Fork of the Salmon River was the
single most important summer chinook stream in the entire Columbia
River drainage, producing 25% of all summer chinook. In the mid-
1960s, Boise Cascades logging in the S. Fork destroyed most of the
salmon habitat when rain on snow caused massive blowouts of
logging roads and logged areas. In 1995, Boise Cascade bought 13
mmbf on the Thunderbolt Timber Salvage Sale in the S. Fork
drainage. The EPA classified sale as environmentally unacceptable.
The National Marine Fisheries Service said logging there defied
common sense. The US Fish & Wildlife Service and the Idaho Dept.
of Fish & Game also urged the Forest Service not to log.
Thunderbolt is a salvage rider sale. No bids were received at the
public auction, where media attention was focussed. Boise Cascade
quietly entered their bid 11 days later, when the cameras and
reporters were gone. Source: BC bids on timber from 1994 fire,
Associated Press 11/21/95; Memo from Ron Mitchell, 11/27/95; and
News Release from Idaho Conservation League, 11/22/95.
Foothills Wildfire Recovery Project: The Idaho Sporting Congress
found 2224 violations of federal and state regulations and policy.
The sale area covered 100,000 acres and offered 130 mmbf. 61
instances totalling over 120 violations of contract are on Forest
Service records, including: 48 instances of cutting reserve trees,
11 instances of cutting outside sale boundaries (273 trees in one
incident) and 2 unauthorized landings. The Idaho Sporting
Congress, along with the national group Save Americas Forests,
prepared a detailed report of the violations and presented it to
key members of Congress. Congressman Bruce Vento forwarded the
report to the Inspector General of the Department of Agriculture,
who decided in June to deep-six it in an internal Forest Service
investigation. Source: "The Forest Service's Forest Health
Protection and Restoration in Action: The Debacle of the Foothills
Wildfire Recovery Project" by Idaho Sporting Congress & Save
America's Forests; Conversation with Carl Ross, Save Americas
Forests,11/10/95.
Logging Overseas:
Importing Rainforest Timber: Boise Cascade is buying timber from
the rainforests of New Zealand for processing at its Medford,
Oregon lumber mill. Source: "Boise Cascade Trots Globe", Idaho
Statesman, 12/17/95.
RELIANCE ON FEDERAL TIMBER:
Boise Cascade is the #1 federal timber purchaser in the Pacific
Northwest Region. Most of that is old growth. Last year they
bought 13.7% of the sales offered for a total of 110,000,000 board
feet. In 1994, 39% of the sawtimber and 43% of the pulpwood
processed in BCs mills came from their own land. The rest came
from various private & government sources. They project that 22%
of their total fiber requirements will continue to be available
from owned & controlled resources in the Northwest, plus another
16% as residuals from processed purchased logs. Source: Timber
Data Company, FY 1994 Annual Purchaser Summary, Pacific NW; Boise
Cascade Corporation 1994 Form 10-K.
VIOLATIONS OF ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS:
Thorn Creek, Idaho: The Idaho State Department of Land cited
Boise Cascade for three violations of Idahos Forest Practices Act
on a fire sale 40 miles from the companys headquarters. They piled
logs too close to Thorn Creek in one location and diverted the
creek in another location. While not illegal, their rapacious
removal of all the dead trees, without leaving enough to provide
wildlife habitat and shade, was denounced by environmental groups
and local residents. Said neighbor Cindy Haggenmiller, They didnt
leave anything. I feel really sad that this area might never
recover. Source: They Didnt Leave Anything, Idaho Statesman,
6/19/95.
Rumford, Maine: The Labor Dept. proposed a $1.6 million fine
against Boise Cascade in 1989 for violating federal safety laws at
its Rumford mill. Alan McMillan, acting secretary of labor in
charge of the federal Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, said the inspection showed a substantial disregard
by this major corporation for the safety & health of its employees
in the Rumford Mill. From 1990-91, 5 workers at the Rumford mill
contracted non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a rare, sometimes fatal form of
blood cancer involving the lymph nodes. Boise Cascade denied any
connection with their paper process. Source: $1.6 Million
Fine Proposed Against Paper Mill Owner, Washington Post, 9/14/89,
Paper Mill Chemicals Form Pall of Controversy Over Cancer Valley,
LA Times, 9/8/91.
OSHA Violations: Boise Cascade has been cited for over 2,000 OSHA
violations from 1988-94; 295 of those remain outstanding as of
7/94, and are categorized as wilful. Almost all of those stem from
an 89 inspection of the Rumford mill. Source: Council on Economic
Priorities Social Profile of Boise Cascade, 4/95.
International Falls, MN: In 1990, the Minnesota Labor & Industry
Commissioner fined BC $145,554 for 1,669 instances of safety and
health violations at its International Falls paper mill. Source:
AFL-CIO News, 2/5/90
WORKER RELATIONS:
Layoffs in Idaho follow record profits: On 10/13/95, Boise Cascade
announced record $118.5 million profits for the 3rd quarter of
1995. On 10/23, they laid off 253 people from their Horseshoe
Bend, Emmett and Cascade mills in Idaho. They had already closed a
mill in Council, ID in Jan. All mills manufactured building
materials. Source: Conversation with John McCarthy, Idaho
Conservation League, 11/20/95.
Moving operations to Mexico: Boise Cascade has been moving
equipment from the sawmill in Council, Idaho, which it closed in
March 1995, to Papanoa, Mexico, southwest of Mexico City. They
have a subsidiary there called Costa Grande Forest Products, and
plan to log in the evergreen forests of southwestern Mexico for at
least 5 years. Source: Mexico may hold key to Boise Cascades
future, Medford Mail-Tribune, 11/28/95.
Boise Cascade supports cutting benefits to public employees: In
1994, Boise Cascade gave money to the campaign for an Oregon
initiative known as "Measure 8" which cut benefits to public
employees. Source: Oregon Public Employees Union, "Measure 8
Supporters", 1995.
AFL-CIO calls for stiffer fines against Boise Cascade: Minnesota
AFL-CIO president Dan Gustafson called for stiffer fines against
Boise Cascade for safety & health violations. These incidents show
a pattern of corporate mentality that puts profits before people,
Gustafson said, after the state fined the company $145,554 for
1,669 instances of safety and health violations at its
International Falls paper mill. Source: AFL-CIO News, 2/5/90
Strike-breaking in Minnesota and Maine: Boise Cascade hired BE&K,
a notorious strike-breaking scab broker from Alabama, to construct
its $525 million expansion of the International Falls paper mill.
The company hired BE&K in March 1989, after promising the contract
to union building trades councils the previous fall and beginning
the work. Boise Cascade also used BE&K to bust a strike at its
Rumford mill in 1986. After the Rumford mill strike ended in
November 86, Boise Cascade gave the scab workers superseniority
over strikers who returned to work. Boise Cascade won the Rumford
strike, but it cost them over 30 million dollars. Source: Union
Workers Warn BC: Stop Importing Scab Labor, Working Peoples News,
Oct. 1989; MN labor fights BE&K union-busting in mill project,
Peoples Daily World, 7/27/89; Lessons of the BC Strike, Political
Affairs, 3/87.
Sexual harassment in St. Helens, Oregon: At the Boise Cascade
paper mill in St. Helens, Oregon, women in high-paying mill jobs
were subjected to sexual harassment and intimidation. An article
in Feminist Broadcast Quarterly (Spring, 1994) documents the abuse
of eight women who filed complaints against the company for
encouraging the harassment. A letter to the company managers
that detailed the complaints and contained the womens names was
copied and circulated around the plant, touching off an
intensification of abuse. As a result, the situation became so
intolerable for the women that most of them settled for small cash
payments from the company, selling their jobs for an amount equal
to less than a years wages. Source: Feminist Broadcast Quarterly,
Spring, 1994; interview with one of the plaintiffs, 1995.
ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL LOBBYING:
Attacks on environmental groups: In 1994, Boise Cascade was part
of a timber industry group that successfully pressured AT&T into
halting their matching program for employee contributions to
Earthshare, a workplace giving program for environmental groups.
In 1993, they were part of a group of timber & mining companies
that unsuccessfully lobbied Citibank not to go through with an
Earthshare credit card. Source: Conversation with Jim Pierce,
Environmental Action, 11/16/95.
Fighting for weaker dioxin regulations in Oregon: In 1991, and
again in 1992, Boise Cascade fought to weaken Oregon state dioxin
regulations, requesting that minimum allowable levels be raised
from 0.013ppq (the level recommended by EPA) to 2.3 ppq. Source:
"Boise Cascade: A Report on the Company's Environmental Policies
and Practices," Council on Economic Priorities, May 1992, pg. 29
Fighting a recycling bill in Idaho: In early 1992, Boise Cascade
fought an Idaho state recycling bill that would have required a
certain degree of recycled content in paper purchased by the
state. Source: No Guidelines, Please, ESP News, March/April 1992;
quoted in "Boise Cascade: A Report on the Company's Environmental
Policies and Practices," Council on Economic Priorities, May 1992,
pg. 24.
POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS:
Gubernatorial races in Oregon and Idaho: Boise Cascade gave $6,250
to Denny Smiths 1994 campaign for governor in Oregon; Denny is an
arch-conservative with a strong anti-environmental record during
his term as an Oregon representative in Congress. In 1990, Idaho
Governor Cecil Andrus told reporters of a rumor that Boise Cascade
had offered one million dollars to Republican Dirk Kempthorne to
run against him. In 1994, Boise Cascade contributed $24,000
directly to Phil Batt's gubernatorial campaign. Sources: Summary
Report of Campaign Contributions & Expenditures, 1994 General
Election and 1994 Primary Election, Sec. of State, Salem, OR;
Lewiston Tribune, January 13, 1990; "Boise Cascade Contributions
to 1994 Idaho Candidates," Western States
Center.
Timber PACs: Boise Cascade is a major contributor to timber PACs,
which contributed $200,999 to federal candidates in the first six
months of this year [1995], 89 percent to Republicans. About a
fifth of this total $37,797 went to members of the House
Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over timber cutting
levels on federally owned forest lands. Source: "Money in
Politics Alert", Center for Responsive Politics, Vol. 1, #24,
11/27/95.
Bob Packwood Legal Defense: Boise Cascade contributed $1000 to
Packwoods sexual harassment legal defense through a chief
executive or lobbyist. Source: Big Firms help Packwood pay for
lawyers, San Jose Mercury News, 11/14/93.
Direct contributions to Congresspeople: Between 1987 and 1995, BC
contributed $150,000 directly to candidates; $133,500 of that went
to Republican candidates. $15,000 went to Idaho Senator Larry
Craig, who helped push through the salvage rider and has
introduced forest health legislation to suspend environmental laws
over the long-term. $10,500 went to Washington Senator Slade
Gorton, who was the driving force behind the salvage rider in the
Senate. Another $10,000 was divided evenly between Oregons timber
senators, Mark Hatfield and Bob Packwood. Source: Center for
Responsive Politics database, November 1995.
Senator McClure joins Boise Cascade board: Sen. James McClure was
elected to Boise Cascades board of directors one month before his
retirement from the Senate in January 1991. Before his retirement,
he was the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy & Natural
Resources Committee. Between the years of 1973 and 1990, he
received consistently low scores for environmental concern from
the League of Conservation Voters, averaging only 9% (out of
100%), and scoring 0 for four consecutive years. He supported the
nomination of James Watt for Secretary of Interior, consistently
opposed funding for EPA and Superfund programs, and actively
worked to provide funding for Forest Service roadbuilding. He also
supported protection for polluters from cleanup requirements and
opposed funding for medical expenses for victims of Superfund site
pollution. Source: McClure leaves Senate for Boise Cascade,
Lewiston Tribune, 12/14/90; quoted in Transitions, Inland Empire
Public Lands Council, Aug-Sep 1995; League of Conservation Voters
Environmental Scorecards, 1975-1990.
GREENWASHING:
Different strokes for different folks: In a document intended for
the public ("Boise Cascade & the Environment") they brag about
their reduction of the use of elemental chlorine, which they admit
in their Annual Report (intended for shareholders) was required by
the EPA. Further, in their Annual Report, they discuss their
efforts to pressure the EPA not to require chlorine-free
processing because of the expense.
Advertising for forest policy: In 1990, Boise Cascade and other
companies in the Intermountain Forest Industry Association
launched a $400,000 advertising campaign to polish their image in
the Inland Northwest. What A Waste, says a Boise Cascade magazine
ad, in the slick italic typeface that ad agencies use for emphasis
these days. Some extremist groups want to leave the dead trees to
rot... doesnt it make more sense to salvage...? The ad goes on to
claim that logging will prevent stream erosion and help forests
recover from fire more quickly. After Boise Cascade began logging
the Boise River fire sale, a modest rainstorm blew out the roads
and burned & logged areas, sending 400,000 tons of mud into the N.
Fork Boise River, destroying the endangered bull trout
population. After their logging of a burned, previously logged
area in Thorn Creek Idaho, a local resident lamented, They didnt
leave anything. I feel really sad that this area might never
recover. Source: "Boise Cascade: A Report on the Company's
Environmental Policies and Practices," Council on Economic
Priorities, May 1992, quoting article in the Spokesman Review:
Timber Firms Try to Polish Public Image, 6/29/90; Conversation
with Ron Mitchell, Idaho Sporting Congress, 11/27/95; They Didnt
Leave Anything, Idaho Statesman, 6/19/95.
False and misleading statements to the public: In their public
statement Boise Cascade & the Environment, they boast, We leave
trees along waterways to prevent disturbance of vegetation lining
streams. A partial survey of the Boise Foothills salvage sale by
the Idaho Sportsmens Congress found 685 illegally cut trees in
Class I Stream Protection Zones. (Source: Foothills Wildfire
Recovery Project report, Idaho Sporting Congress & Save America's
Forests) They were also caught building illegal landings within
Stream Protection Zones this spring during the Star Gulch sale.
Mud & debris from their landings polluted the creek. Source: Memo
from Ron Mitchell, Idaho Sporting Congress, 11/27/95.
In the same public statement, they claim further that: We use
logging equipment that is appropriate for the location, and we
adjust our harvesting plans depending on weather and soil
conditions. A partial survey of the Boise Foothills fire sale by
the Idaho Sporting Congress found 8 instances where yarding was
changed from helicopter, as required by the Environmental
Assessment, to tractor/jammer. In the Boise River fire sale, they
again changed the logging prescription from helicopter to
tractor/jammer. As a result, roads blew out, sending tons of
sediment into prime fish habitat. Source: "The Forest Service's
Forest Health Protection and Restoration in Action: The Debacle of
the Foothills Wildfire Recovery Project" by Idaho Sporting
Congress & Save America's Forests; Memo from Ron Mitchell, Idaho
Sporting Congress, 11/27/95.
In another booklet prepared for the public entitled Statements on
Environmental Perspectives, Boise Cascade claims, Our standards
always meet, & generally surpass, Forest Practices Act
requirements in the states where we manage forests. The Idaho
Sporting Congress identified 2224 violations of contract, state &
federal laws, regulations & policy in the logging of the Boise
Foothills fire sale. The state of Idaho cited Boise Cascade for
three violations of Idahos Forest Practices Act on a fire sale 40
miles from the companys headquarters. Sources: "The Forest
Service's Forest Health Protection and Restoration in Action: The
Debacle of the Foothills Wildfire Recovery Project" by Idaho
Sporting Congress & Save America's Forests; They Didnt Leave
Anything, Idaho Statesman, 6/19/95.
Again in the same booklet, Boise Cascade claims, ...we help
create an atmosphere in which salmon & trout thrive. See above for
information on their destruction of endangered Bull Trout at the
Boise River fire sale, and their purchase of the Thunderbolt
Timber sale in the South Fork of the Salmon, despite objections by
state and federal wildlife agencies.
Sugarloaf response aims to confuse: In their response to letters
from concerned citizens about the Sugarloaf timber sale in
southern Oregon, Boise Cascade responded by using a terminology
technicality to confuse people. They stated that Sugarloaf was not
an ancient forest reserve, as there is no such thing; Sugarloaf
lies within a late-successional reserve under the Presidents
Option Nine forest plan. The name of the reserves was changed
during the drafting of the plan due to industry pressure. Late-
successional is a scientific term applied to ancient forests. They
further claimed that Sugarloaf went through a thorough court
review; what they didnt tell people was that the appeals to the
court to stop Sugarloaf were thrown out because Sugarloaf was
exempted from most environmental laws by a Congressional rider.
THREATS TO ACTIVISTS:
After posting an earlier version of this profile on the internet,
Siskiyou Project received a letter from their legal department
warning us of further action should we continue distributing
misleading information about them. Similarly, the Boise Eight
women workers got a letter threatening legal action against the
Feminist Broadcast Quarterly for publishing its story on their
sexual harassment suits, because the article intended to do harm
to the image of Boise Cascade.