Weyerhaeuser
For over one hundred years, Weyerhaeuser has been "synonymous" with deforestation for lumber. Frederick Weyerhaeuser, who founded the company, was castigated as the "classic cut-and-run timberman" by muckraking journalists who exposed his vast land-grabs, deforestation, and monopolization, comparing his riches and methods to the Rockefellers.[1]
In 1969, Sports Illustrated reported that the Weyerhaeuser family/company had "cut down more trees in more places than anyone in U.S. history" and controlled 3.8 million acres of forestland (1/640th of the U.S.).[2]
By 1999, the company's holdings had expanded almost 50% to control over 5.6 million acres of forestland across U.S.-occupied Turtle Island, as well as licensing arrangements and rights to an additional 18 million acres across Canada-occupied Turtle Island.[3]
Leadership
For decades, senior leaders of the company have held significant overlaps with top American corporate polluters in fossil fuel industries.
1999 Directors:
- William Ruckleshaus (of Monsanto)
- George H. Weyerhaeuser (of Chevron and Boeing)[4]
- Harold J. Haynes (of Bechtel, Boeing, Standard Oil, & Saudi Aramco)[5]
Information Systems
"Weyerhaeuser Information Systems, which began as the company data processing department, now markets internationally for professional services, information systems, disaster recovery, and manufacturing systems. Its customers have included IBM, Honeywell, DEC, and Hewlett-Packard. District and municipal court jurisdictions in Washington State use Weyerhaeuser computer systems. Weyerhaeuser has even participated in a steering committee designed to test attitudes about converting a mothballed nuclear reactor on the Hanford reservation to a weapons plant."[6]
Political Corruption
In the 1990s, ecological pressure to halt deforestation in the Pacific Northwest to protect the old growth forest and iconic species like the spotted owl was gaining considerable momentum. At the time, Corporate Director George Weyerhaeuser (great grandson of the founder), a Yale classmate of George H.W. Bush, visited the White House shortly before the Bush administration removed private timber holdings from endangered species protection for the spotted owl. Over 300 million acres owned Weyerhaeuser Inc could have been place off-limits to timber cutting.
Although protection (which were insufficient to reverse the decline of the Spotted Owl) were put in place by the Clinton Administration under Option 9, smaller mills without their own supply of timber accused Weyerhaeuser and other corporate giants of selling out the industry by endorsing this new plan.[7]
Public Relations
The company spends millions of dollars on full-page newspaper advertisements extolling the benefits of industrial, intensively-managed "forest" operations, while replacing diverse natural forests with genetically-engineered, single-species plantations.
In June 1994, Weyerhaeuser executives appeared at "town hall" meetings in Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle. The company had sent invitations (printed on recycled paper) to hundreds of environmentalists. Vice president Charley Bingham acknowledged the company had been slow to recognize public concerns about the environment, and claimed it was now ready to listen and learn. Environmentalists viewed the meetings with skepticism; some newspapers praised the willingness of the company to "subject itself to public comment."[8]
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20000824134904/http://www.endgame.org/weyerprofile.html
- ↑ https://vault.si.com/vault/1969/08/18/the-shy-tycoon-who-owns-1640th-of-the-us
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20000824134904/http://www.endgame.org/weyerprofile.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20000824134904/http://www.endgame.org/weyerprofile.html
- ↑ https://www.bechtel.com/newsroom/releases/2009/07/memoriam-harold-j-bill-haynes/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20000824134904/http://www.endgame.org/weyerprofile.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20000824134904/http://www.endgame.org/weyerprofile.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20000824134904/http://www.endgame.org/weyerprofile.html