Dogwood Alliance Celebrates First Anniversary of Landmark Agreement with Bowater to Protect Southern Forests
Historic Accord Begins Trasformation of the Paper Industry
June 29, 2006 marked the first anniversary of a landmark agreement between Bowater, Inc, one of the Southern United States’ largest paper producers, and environmental groups Dogwood Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The agreement set forth a plan to preserve and protect the unique forested landscapes of the Cumberland Plateau and the Southern U.S. The accord marked the first commitment by a large paper producer to dramatically alter its forest management practices, including ending conversion of native forests to sterile pine plantations.
Over the last year, Bowater has already taken dramatic and important steps toward altering its most damaging practices. Most importantly, Bowater has nearly eliminated conversion of native hardwood forests to pine plantations on company lands and the company has begun the process of educating landowners it purchases trees from that Bowater will no longer accept fiber from land that has been converted to plantations after the end of next year.
In addition implementation of tighter controls on Bowater’s aerial spraying operations, have included notifying local land owners of intent to spray and switching from fixed wing airplanes to helicopters in order to exert tighter control over applications. The company has also conducted a study of thousands of acres of its holdings in conjunction with the state of Tennessee in order to identify areas in need of greater protection and has not logged or put any of these lands on the market for sale with its other landholdings pending completion and full analysis of the study.
“We congratulate Bowater on its good faith effort to adhere to the agreement and substantially improve its forestry practices,” said Andrew Goldberg, Implementation Director for Dogwood Alliance. “Whereas many companies, like , continue to blow hot air when it comes to the environment, Bowater is really putting its money where its mouth is.”
Click here to read the press release about today’s important anniversary.
Click here to read the accord signed between Bowater, Dogwood Alliance and NRDC on June 29, 2005
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