In a daring predawn landing at Kimberly-Clark/Scott Paper's export dock in Mobile, Alabama, five forest activists climbed atop a 120-foot crane preventing 45,000 tons of woodchips from being shipped to Japan. Protesters from several southeastern states took part in the December 19 action to publicize the connection between rapid deforestation of upstream watersheds and skyrocketing exports from the Port of Mobile.
The action was the culmination of several months of organizing throughout the Southeast on the proliferation of chip mills and the adverse impact to both ecological and economic systems. It brought together a variety of environmental groups including Earth First!, the Native Forest Network, Global Sustainablilty, Broadened Horizons Riverkeepers, TAGER and the Bankhead Monitor.
Katuah Earth First!er John was the first person up the stairs. He informed the crane operator that an environmental action was underway and asked if he would be kind enough to shut down to prevent injury. The operator checked downstairs via telephone and abandoned the control room to await the police. Upon his departure, John immediately locked down in the operator's chair.
While John was engaging the crane operator, Steve from Knoxville, Tennessee locked down to the top of the stairs to gain extra time for the banner hangers. The climbers, Rodney and Corey, and the sherpa, Jake, were focused on unfurling a 40-by-50-foot fishnet banner with gigantic letters. The banner team deployed it on the far side of the crane opposite the Japanese ship Hokuetsu Hope beneath a steaming mountain of pulverized one-inch woodchips formerly a living community of hardwood trees. In less than fifteen minutes, the banner was dropped and the climbers free-rappelled over the edge and began stabilizing the banner. A stiff breeze was blowing across the Mobile Bay making conditions difficult. But by daylight, "STOP EXPORTING FORESTS AND JOBS" was visible for all the world to see. John was content in the control room-so content that he made a call from the phone to Chattanooga's WGOW live talk radio show to inform upstream listeners that we were shutting down woodchip exports to protect our forests and our jobs.
Meanwhile, Steve, sporting a Kryptonite lock around his neck continued to block the steep, narrow steps that led to the top of the superstructure. He would later pay a price for his troubles when the owner and his "Deadhead" son Norman would use him as a kicking and punching bag. Eventually, more workers made their way up and around Steve, but the situation was peaceful as we engaged the workers in conversation 101.
Out by the entrance to Chipco, the front company established by Scott Paper in 1991, a dozen activists carried banners and signs, handed out fact sheets and awaited the media. "No Stripping-No Chipping-No Shipping" and "No Forests-No Jobs-No Future" were among the messages greeting commuters, chip haulers and passers-by. The police had by now arrived and informed the demonstrators out at the gate that changes in the constitution had made peaceful gatherings and protests without a permit illegal in these parts. Welcome to Alabama! Thanks to the presence of longtime civil rights activists Jerry and Jeffrey, the police backed off a little and our contingent did their best to comply with the officers lest we risk any other arrests.
The tone of the action changed dramatically when the owner, Mack McGuiness, got on the crane and ordered workers to cut the banner. When he instructed workers to do the same with the climbers' ropes, Jake intervened yelling "You'll be in jail too, mate, after I file attempted murder charges!" Rodney had figured out that the show was over and rappelled into the chip pile but it took Corey awhile. At one point, McGuiness lost his cool again and he and others started to pull Corey up by his rope in a vain attempt to remove him. Once again, Jake stepped in and told McGuiness to back off and let him rappel on his own power. Unfortunately, no police ever got to the top of the crane and so there were no officials to witness McGuiness' actions.
In the end, export operations were shut down for over two hours and the action itself lasted for over four, but the crane resumed loading after the banner was cut down by workers. It took another one-and-a-half hours to remove John and Steve from their respective perches.
It was during that time that McGuiness' son punched Steve in the stomach after he dropped his krypto key from the top of the stairs. A police officer did witness this and Steve is considering filing assault charges pending our legal situation. Once in police custody, the affinity group was treated with respect. The five arrestees ended up with four charges each, two counts of criminal trespassing and two counts of disorderly conduct, because both Chipco and Kimberly-Clark/Scott filed identical charges. The trial is scheduled for February 6.
As for media coverage, we knew that it would be tough to break the stranglehold of the industrial masters of the Mobile pulp and paper colony. Still, we were the second story on the NBC affiliate who used our video footage and actually conveyed our message reasonbly. The print media was less favorable, although we were highlighted on the front page beneath the Mobile Press Register banner with a small photo and caption referring to the article in the Business section. We were particularly angry that their photographer was late and didn't get shots of the banner, and they wouldn't use any of our photos. Obviously, we made some phone calls to the appropriate editors at the newspaper as well as to the local AP feeder who refused to help us at all.
This action, and our earlier demonstrations in October at the International Trade Center and US Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps), were the first protests ever in the state of Alabama focusing on forestry issues and trade exports. We hope our efforts served as a warning shot launched over the bow of the pulp and paper industry. No longer will their trade policies and forest practices go unscrutinized nor will they have the luxury of operating without public dissent.
The Chip Cartel & The Pipeline To Asia
Nowhere has the rush to cash in on the East's recovering forests been faster than in the Southeast where, within the last ten years, an unprecedented logging boom has swept across the region. Much of the activity centers around the Tennessee River Valley and associated watersheds, particularly the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (Tenn-Tom) which was completed by the Corps in 1986.
Comprised of a series of reservoirs and linked by dredged canals, the Tenn-Tom waterway is the Corps $two billion engineering feat designed to provide a short-cut to the Gulf of Mexico. It allows barges to transport raw materials long distances, drastically cutting transportation costs. Without a doubt, the biggest beneficiary of this environmental boondoggle has been the timber industry. According to Eric Bates, Doublestake, "Last year the Tenn-Tom accommodated nearly eight million tons of commodities-more than half of it wood, and almost all in the form of chips."
The Tenn-Tom and the Port of Mobile now serve as the funnel to drain these previously inaccessible and uneconomical forests; it is no coincidence that hardwood exports have increased every year since 1987 when the Tenn-Tom starting earning its reputation as the "Pipeline to Asia." Exports from the Alabama State Docks in Mobile consist of linerboard and paper, lumber, plywood and veneer, post and poles and woodpulp. Over 1,258,390 tons of woodpulp were exported out of the port in 1994 making Mobile the number one woodpulp port in the nation.
In addition to the Alabama State Docks, private terminals owned by Scott Paper and Marubeni of America (a joint venture between Weyerhaeuser, Mannington Wood and the Japanese multinational Marubeni) are exporting woodchips and whole logs. In 1994, over three million tons of woodchips left private terminals bound for Japan.
Together, raw woodchips, woodpulp and whole logs constitute 80 percent of the Port of Mobile forest "products" exported. The South more resembles a Third World economy because their forest's resources are barely processed at the source. The equation for profits for large pulp and paper manufacturers like Kimberly-Clark/Scott Paper is simple: Exports plus downsizing plus asset stripping equals instant capital, lower costs from fewer employees, less infrastructure and bureaucracy, and higher stock prices.
Due to the abundance of hardwood forests growing in the higher elevations of the Southern Appalachians and Cumberland Plateau, the multinational pulp and paper corporations, in cooperation with the Corps, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and state agencies in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, identified the region as an ideal source of raw materials for both domestic and international pulp and paper markets. Combined together, these powerful governmental and corporate interests are acting as a Chip Cartel-operating above local, state and federal laws. In a nutshell, "free trade" is nothing more than commerce without morality and is replacing the US Constitution and economic democracy.
The Chip Cartel is guilty of illegally exporting millions of tons of raw forest and tens of thousands of jobs. As a result of these massive exports local economies for hundreds of miles upstream of Mobile Bay are suffering adverse impacts. Local hardwood industries, considered to be "domestic dinosaurs" by invading pulp and chip interests, are being doomed to extinction by the Chip Cartel's trade policies and forest practices. The Mobile District of the Corps has illegally issued permits to clusters of chip mill and whole log export facilities throughout the Tenn-Tom waterway and the Tennessee Valley without conducting even one public hearing. This is in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. Furthermore, the Corps has refused to consider the reasonably foreseeable cumulative economic and environmental impacts throughout the sourcing areas utilized by the Chip Cartel. The Corps has also failed to consult with the US Fish and Wildlife Service on the foreseeable and resultant habitat destruction and wildlife extinction that has resulted from their disregard for the law and the public trust. For example, construction of the Tenn-Tom waterway destroyed thousands of acres of wetlands. Biologists estimate over 150 species of fish and mollusks have disappeared. Public subsidies for these institutions appeared in many forms ranging from reduced rates for electricity, tax exemptions, perpetual dredging and upkeep of the waterways. The Corps spends $20 million a year to dredge the Tenn-Tom.
From an ecological standpoint, most of these hardwood forests are 80-100 years old having been cleared for agriculture, fuelwood or sawtimber around the turn of the century. They generally are dominated by oak but contain a good diversity of gum, beech, maple, sycamore and poplar. Despite the fact that they are second growth and do not contain the older age classes or all the former species, these forests have regenerated to the point to be representative of intact, native forest ecosystems.
High-capacity chip mills, which produce between 300,000-400,000 tons of chips per year, are capable of stripping 200 square miles of these forest within three years. To add insult to injury, chip mills require only 5-10 employees depending on the size of the operation. When compared to the numbers of workers employed in hardwood producing industries like furniture manufacturing, chip mills provide a fraction of the jobs.
Traditionally, hardwood forests were the source of timber for smaller-scale sawmills and local manufacturing operations. They were selectively cut and high-graded through logging practices that rarely removed the structural integrity of the forest. But within a matter of a decade, the drive for fast dollars has turned the industry into one of the most cutthroat in the country. The multinational pulp and paper giants have elbowed out the region's hardwood sawmills and manufacturing facilities by removing all standing timber-much of it good sawtimber.
Multinational woodpulp users like Kimberly-Clark (formerly Scott Paper), Boise Cascade and Champion International have changed the face of forestry in the Southeast, not just through their reliance on feller-bunchers and other high-tech machinery but through overseas trade and development. Some like Kimberly-Clark (KC) have become major exporters and have directly contributed to the high rate of deforestation occurring in the region. By cutting twice as much as its papermill can use, KC can sell the excess to a mill that does not have its own reserves of forested lands. Aside from depriving the local hardwood users, it also removes trees that could be used for domestic paper production thereby further undermining the region's economic base. KC exports $50 million worth of woodchips annually from its Mobile facility which represents a small fraction of their value.
Please join in the call for an immediate, nationwide ban on the export of woodchips, woodpulp and raw logs for the sake of our forests and our economies. It is also time for the Corps and TVA to conduct a region-wide environmental and economic impact statement on the sourcing areas of chip mills and log export facilities along the Tenn-Tom waterway and other associated drainages. Contact your state and federal representatives and senators by phone or fax and urge them to draft an export ban bill, write letters to newspapers, call in to radio talk shows and, most importantly, get active on pulp and paper issues and campaigns. It is our job to get the word out throughout our communities so we can develop the political and physical will to halt corporations who infringe on our environmental and economic rights.
For more information contact:
John Johnson-Katuah Earth First!
PO Box 281
Chattanooga, TN 37401
(423) 624-3939;
Rodney Webb-Native Forest Network
65 Mill Creek Rd.
Marshall, NC 28753
(704) 656-2517
Denny Haldeman-TAGER
PO Box 4193
Chattanooga, TN 37405
(423) 886-2993.