Who Are They

What are Trees?

Living beings, pillars connecting Earth and Sky.  They draw down the rain, (scientific studies have shown it tends to rain more where trees are gathered) and they protect the soil and the life within it.  Trees clean our air, lift our spirits, and provide shade.  They are homes for innumerable creatures:  underneath where cicadas sleep, in their bark, on the leaves, and on their branches where birds, squirrels, and others rest.  They provide food for many kinds of beings, including deer and you and me.  What will poor people eat with no acorn or hickory nut crops?  No deer, no Squirrels. 

When the phrase "tree hugger" came out I thought it was pretty funny.  As a blind child wanting to see how large a tree was, that's what I did.  I hugged it and walked around it, stretching out my arms to measure its lifespan.  So I guess I'm the original "tree hugger."

When the ice storm of Jan.  2007 hit it Forced people to realize just how important trees were.  Ice would form so thickly on big limbs that they would literally Rip a huge chunk out of a tree from top to root.  Some trees split in half.  If you have ever heard a tree scream as it is being torn to pieces, you would Never be able to forget that shound, not when it continues day and night for a week!

We threw out some thawing food for the whirling flocks of mixed species of birds wheeling and crying in the air, homeless.  They were so hungry they fell on it, grabbing whatever they could reach.  Then they rose and cried more, where could they rest?  Trees were dying and screaming all around!  There was no safety or rest to be found!  They needed a Lot of food to stay alive, to keep flying all day in search of a place to land!

Everywhere Ann and I moved we always planted food bearing trees, for ourselves and the creatures for whom we planted cover.

I hope the peaches, pawpaws, cherries, and others are still growing.

So what brought all of this up about trees?

IKEA claims it’s committed to sustainability, but is carving up 600-year-old trees

to make furniture.

Tell IKEA to stop clear-cutting Russia's ancient forests.

Tell IKEA to stop destroying Russia's last old-growth forests before it’s too late.

Click to Send a Message

,

The roar of a chainsaw shatters the peaceful calm of the Karelia forest in Northwestern

Russia. A logger carves into an exquisite giant -- a 600-year-old tree -- with expert

precision. Within minutes, he has masterfully sliced through tree rings, added the

felled tree to a growing pile, and moved on to the next.

These trees -- part of Russia's last remaining old-growth forests -- will be chopped

up to make cutting boards, wooden spoons and other items for IKEA. IKEA has built

a reputation around sustainability and tells its customers, literally, “We Love Wood”,

and that the furniture they buy will not contain wood from old-growth forests. But

a new report shows that

IKEA is clear-cutting Russia's remaining ancient forests and destroying hundreds

of thousands of unique animal species for profit.

 If it doesn’t stop now, there may be no trees left.

Send a message to IKEA CEO Mikael Ohlsson telling IKEA to stop clear-cutting Russia's ancient old-growth forests.

IKEA is the third-largest purchaser of wood in the world, behind Home Depot and Lowe’s,

and roughly 60 percent of the products stocked in IKEA’s 300 department stores across

the globe contain wood of some form. IKEA already decimates 1,400 acres of forest

a year -- that’s why it purchased this enormous swath of over

740,000 acres of Russia’s Karelia lush boreal forests -- for expansion.

IKEA is trying to convince customers that it adheres to the strictest environmental

standards, and only uses wood sourced in economically, socially, and environmentally

sustainable ways. But a Swedish conservation group discovered that IKEA’s wholly-owned

subsidiary, Swedwood, is clear-cutting the last of Karelia’s old-growth forests from

areas of high conservation and devastating invaluable forest ecosystems in the process.

This

directly violates the minimum requirements IKEA has set for its timber.

IKEA truly cares about its sustainable image and internationally-known brand and

is especially vulnerable to public pressure from SumOfUs.org members. That’s why

it is important we send a strong message now.

As a world leader in the furniture industry and one of the world’s largest companies,

with over $30 billion in profits between 2000 and 2008, IKEA has the means to make

its forestry practices more ecologically friendly and needs to stop misleading its

customers.

Tell IKEA's CEO to prove he really loves wood and to stop clear-cutting Russia's remaining ancient forests. Send a message now.

Thanks for loving trees,

Emma, Taren, Kaytee and the rest of us

*******************************

Why are old-growth forests so important?

Russia’s lush, old-growth forests perform vital functions for life on Earth. They

help to stabilize the climate by locking carbon in the soil -- which helps safeguard

our climate. In addition, old-growth forests have much greater biodiversity than

managed plantations, and are home to literally hundreds of thousands of unique animal

and plant species, like rare species of lichens, mosses and other plants and animals.

These species cannot survive in secondary forests.

But because of logging,

only 10% of Russia’s old-growth forests remain.

NGOs claim that IKEA, through Swedwood, is helping to destroy ecosystems that are

home to endangered species by clear-cutting already depleted old-growth forests.

In Karelia, only isolated tracts and pockets of old-growth forests remain.

In Russia, Swedwood Karelia LLC owns a logging concession of over 740,000 acres.

And with Russian markets increasingly opening to the global market, and World Trade

Organization (WTO) membership likely, environmentalists fear the worst damage to

Russia’s forests is yet to come.

Further Reading:

IKEA under fire for ancient tree logging

, The Guardian

. May 29, 2012.

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