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As many of you may have heard, Home Depot founder Arthur Blank recently came out in public with a statement that the Home Depot will begin phasing out the sale of some old growth products in their stores.

First of all, I would like to thank all of you who got out to the stores, stickers, placards, banners or megaphones in hand and made life interesting for the mega-corporation and its staff. Without us, none of this would have happened and the public and the Home Depot itself would still be totally blind to the fact that it's profits are coming from the decimation of the world's ancient forests. I think it really shows the power of the GRASSROOTS in this country. Now for some perspective:

This statement is definitely the best news the campaign has had since it's inception in Canada at the end of 1998, but falls far short of FAN's goals and what is truly in the best interests of Canada and the world's forests. We thought it might be useful to run over the high-lights and low-lights of the recent announcement.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Home Depot commits to eliminating SOME wood products from it's shelves, including CERTAIN cedar, lauan and mahogany products. *Home Depot commits to purchasing more Forest Stewardship Council wood, and will push vendors to log sustainably. There are lots of problems with FSC but it remains the best certification scheme out there, as all the others are shilling for industry (eg. Canadian Standards Association (CSA) or IS0 bla bla bla)
• The corporation will follow the World Resources Institute's definitions of endangered forests. This includes the Great Bear Rainforest, much of Canada's boreal forest, the Amazon and elsewhere.

LOWLIGHTS

• A HISTORY OF LIES makes it hard to believe anything this company says. We've been told this before, and though this time the announcement was public they skirted most of the details. Makes us wonder if this is real or another PR scheme.
• THREE YEARS until any products are phased out. This is unacceptable. With current logging plans Interfor, WFP and West Fraser will be road-building or clearcutting dozens of pristine valleys in the next three years. If the Home Depot is serious about helping protect the forests, products from these companies must be IMMEDIATELY taken off the shelves. Three years will be too late for some of the most beautiful and ecologically important places on the planet.
• NO MENTION of wood products made from ramin, hemlock or spruce, all trees that come strictly from endangered ancient forests. This year, for example, companies are cutting the Great Bear Rainforest more for hemlock than for cedar.
• NO ACTION PLAN which makes the removal of products from ancient forests transparent and open to monitoring.

So, where do we go from here?? The FAN National network feels that though the announcement was a good step forward, it did not go far enough and we should continue the campaign until the wood comes off the shelves. FAN is committed to an immediate end to the destruction of the world's ancient forests and do not believe this commitment by Home Depot goes nearly far enough. Two activists were arrested at a store in Waterloo, Ontario on Sept. 9 and even the police agreed that the Home Depot was wrong!! It is important that we keep Home Depot aware that we are unsatisfied with their promise and that we will not stop until all ancient wood products are OFF THE SHELVES.

What can you do?

• Start organizing for the International Day of Action on October 26th. We had demos in 10 cities across Canada in May- let's try and have 5 more. *Demand that all new stores be ancient forest free- If one is opening in your town make sure city council or the equivalent hears about their commitment and get them forest-friendly now rather than three years from now.
• Call local store managers and ask for a tour of what products Home Depot will be taking off the shelves. Chances are they have no idea- maybe bring a reporter around with you so they can get an introduction to the problem.
• Write a letter to the editor of your local paper detailing Home Depot's commitment and why it is insufficient. It has been reported that they are getting rid of old growth, good PR but not the truth. *Begin the research on the other chains- Revy (Lansing Build All) are big in the West and in Ontario, Reno Depot is big in Quebec.