Three Major Companies Join Fight to Protect Tongass
Office supply giant Staples and building companies KB Home and Hayward Lumber have joined with environmentalists in opposing a Bush administration proposal that would allow roads and development in southeast Alaska’s pristine Tongass National Forest. The three companies, all big users of wood products, have been working with enviro groups to reduce their consumption of old-growth wood and have sent letters to the U.S. Forest Service calling for roadless protections to be maintained in the Tongass as well as Alaska’s Chugach National Forest. “The homebuilding industry and similar industries do not need wood from Tongass,” wrote Andrew Henderson, KB’s director of public and government relations, in an Aug. 5 letter. “It is one of the last few remaining wild places in our nation.
