In classroom training, Green Corps organizers learned important skills to help them launch campaigns to protect endangered forests from logging and communities from toxic pesticides.

About six years ago, California’s largest logger stepped up its destructive activities to an unprecedented level. Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) began large-scale clearcutting in the Sierra Nevada, leveling 20-acre areas and replacing the clearcut zones with pine tree plantations that lack the natural diversity of the Sierra Nevada. With wild forests vanishing rapidly from the landscape, and a host of associated ills on the rise—including loss of species and degradation of water quality—SPI’s new strategy has been an alarming development.

To halt the destruction, Green Corps is looking at
the driving forces behind the accelerated logging. First among these is the homebuilding industry’s demand for lumber. Approximately half of all solid wood harvested in the U.S. is used for homebuilding, and increases in the industry’s lumber demand have fueled massive rises in logging in many areas.

“Without reform in this sector, we will not be able to achieve the long-term impacts on forest protection that we need for a sustainable future,” said Josh Buswell-Charkow, Green Corps Class of 2003 graduate who is currently the homebuilders organizer with ForestEthics. This fall, Josh is leading a team of Green Corps organizers to launch a campaign, focusing first on SPI and the Sierra Nevada forests, to persuade homebuilders to pressure SPI and others to use sustainable logging methods.

In a new campaign with Toxics Action Center, Green Corps is working toward fundamental change in the lawn care industry—the phase-out of its widespread use of poisonous weed killers and pesticides.

In the quest for green lawns, companies like ChemLawn spread 67 million pounds of chemicals onto U.S. lawns every year. The chemicals they use have now been linked to cancer, birth defects and neurological disorders. These pesticides also contaminate water supplies; kill beneficial insects like bees, ladybugs and butterflies; and harm wildlife, fatally poisoning an estimated 67 million birds annually.

This fall, a team of Green Corps organizers is partnering with Toxics Action Center to target the largest lawn pesticide applicator, TruGreen ChemLawn.

My team and I thank you for your support, which has made it possible to connect another team of future environmental leaders with careers that make a difference for all of us. I look forward to reporting to you with news of more concrete victories for the environment.

Sincerely,

Naomi Roth
Executive Director