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Just as our culture has moved beyond barbaric practices like slaughtering elephants for ivory, it is time that we eliminate the practice of destroying the oldest, largest, and tallest living things on Earth: pristine old growth forests. Every day thousands of acres of endangered forests are cut down and turned into products ranging from plywood and paneling to pulp and paper. And every day, endangered forest products are consumed on every university campus in the U.S. Most forests in their natural state in the 21st century are endangered. The rarest endangered forests are old growth forests, which in New Zealand are on public and Maori lands. Native forests everywhere are being converted into sterile monocultural plantations; for example, the West Coast of NZ and Southland are native and unique podocarp forests to pine plantations. Similar `replacement therapy' is going on in the USA and old growth forests in Chile are being converted into eucalyptus plantations. Engineered wood products, like chipboard or OSB, accelerate clearcutting, plantation conversion, and native forest loss. Timber companies are experimenting with genetically engineered trees, which endanger all native forests. Our demand for wood products, pulp, and paper continually increases, and our global forests are expected to bear the burden to supply us. Together, we can work to save the most endangered forests by demanding wood products which contain: No old growth No public land's timber No new conversion to plantations No chipboard or oriented strand board (OSB) from virgin tree material No genetically engineered trees The key is to change purchasing practices, and one key group of people to effect that change are university and school students, through systematic elimination of endangered forest products at schools and universities. It was borne out of the experience of the Bloomington Rainforest Action Group's campaign to end old growth purchases at Indiana University. Students led the three-year campaign to convince Home Depot to stop selling old growth and phase out all endangered forests. Now, students can join a campaign to save forests on their own university campuses. The solutions already exist: 100% Recycled Paper Tree-Free Paper (kenaf, hemp, and agricultural waste) Recycled Wood or Plastic Composites Certified Sustainably Harvested Wood Products We don't have any time to lose. An International Botanical Society study shows that, at current rates, two-thirds of the world's plant and animal species will become extinct by the year 2100. Habitat destruction from logging is the leading cause of this mass extinction. 80% of the world's old growth forests are already gone. Your university, and you, as its customers, can stop being a part of the problem, and join the campaign to stop buying endangered forests. :
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