BOISE, Idaho, March 26, 2002 (AP) -- Boise Cascade Corp., a major timber company, says it is ending the logging of old-growth forests in the face of opposition from environmentalists.
Old growth represented less than 1 percent of the supply for Boise Cascade, spokesman Mike Moser said. It was unclear how long it will take the company to disengage from contracts involving old growth.
"It takes a little bit of time to transition out of the commitments we have in our contracts," Moser said Wednesday.
Conservation groups have waged education campaigns to push consumers to demand that paper and wood products they buy not come from areas where trees have stood for hundreds or even thousands of years.
Some of Boise Cascade's customers, including Kinko's paper products and the sportswear company Patagonia, stopped buying from the company.
"We don't think they can yet claim the mantle of green forestry," Michael Brune of the Rainforest Action Network said of Boise Cascade. "This still is a dramatic turning point. Boise has been fighting change tooth and nail -- and now it says it won't."
Boise Cascade was one of the largest timber companies still logging the big trees that provide habitat for scores of plants and animals.
Kinko's spokeswoman Maggie Thill would not say whether the company would do business again with Boise Cascade.
John Sterling, a Patagonia spokesman, called Boise Cascade's announcement "a great improvement" but cautioned, "It's a hard thing to know where the timber comes from."
Brune accuses Boise Cascade of continuing to buy old growth from other countries, including Indonesia, Chile, Canada and Southeast Asia. The company denies it.
Copyright 2002, The Associated Press