Background Information Who's West Fraser? West Fraser Timber is the largest lumber producer in Canada, with net sales in 1997 of $1, 869.8 million. They are a giant forest products company that produces lumber, pulp, newsprint and other forest products. For example, the cardboard they produce is used in boxes by Volkswagon and BMW to package spare parts in Germany; Proctor & Gamble make disposable products using West Fraser wood pulp; WalMart use product packaging that originates from the GBR; and Home Depot sells West Fraser lumber in their stores in the U.S. Oakwood homes, the largest retailer of manufactured homes in the world, also uses West Fraser timber. West Fraser also own Revy Home and Garden Centers, with 49 Home Improvement stores in Western Canada, and Lansing Build-all home improvement stores in Ontario. The company cut almost 4.5 million cubic meters from public lands in British Columbia and Alberta in 1997. In addition, the company successfully pressured the provincial government into allowing the export of up to 1/3 of its Northern B.C. harvest as raw logs in 1999, destined primarily for Japan, thus effectively denying employment to local people in the region. In 1997 West Fraser recorded earnings of over $69 million, with CEO Hank Ketcham III receiving a paycheque of $583 569 (plus perks!). Why are they so bad? West Fraser ranks among the worst and largest destroyers of Canada's temperate and boreal forests. In 1997 West Fraser clearcut over 560 000 cubic meters of wood in the Great Bear Rainforest, with 161 449 cubic meters coming from the North Coast. They hold cutting rights to many of the last pristine valleys on the coast. If current plans are allowed to proceed, West Fraser will destroy 16 large pristine valleys and 4 key ecological areas in the Great Bear Rainforest. They are currently active in one of these areas, Chambers Creek, and intend to begin clearcut logging in six more in the next five years. As well as destroying precious ecosystems for short-term profit, in two years (between June 15, 1195 and June 15, 1997) West Fraser was charged 77 times under the Forest Act and the Forest Practices Code. What does the future look like for the forest? At the moment, not very good. West Fraser has enjoyed a general lack of scrutiny as all of its logging occurs in the Northern portions of the Great Bear Rainforest. They join other companies such as Interfor, Western Forest Products/Doman, MacMillan Bloedel and the government-run small business program in trashing the coastal forest for short-term, one-time profits. Recent fly-overs of the North Coast have revealed some of the worst logging seen so far on the coast. Only 20% of the original large coastal rainforest valleys remain pristine here, with nearly all of them slated to be clear-cut or roaded within the next 15 years. With West Fraser's business as usual, once these ancient forests are cut, they're gone forever.
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