Environmental Victory: Wal-Mart Stops Selling Cypress Much

Objections to Wal-Mart’s selling of Louisiana cypress mulch surfaced several months ago, when the Gulf Restoration Network raised concerns that the endangered cypress trees were being ravaged. The trees play a huge role in the health of the Lousiana wetlands, which in turn help prevent flooding. Wal-Mart’s recent decision to stop selling the mulch is a victory for these local environmental activists.

Wal-Mart will not sell La. cypress mulch [Associated Press via BusinessWeek]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, will stop selling cypress mulch from Louisiana, where environmentalists say the logging of the tree threatens this coast’s eroding wetlands and puts the state at greater risk from hurricanes.

Wal-Mart will refuse to buy cypress mulch harvested, bagged or manufactured in Louisiana “in order to extend the life-span of the coastal wetland forests,” Tara Raddohl, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said Wednesday.

Wal-Mart’s decision was lauded by the Save Our Cypress coalition, an environmental group that has urged retailers to drop Louisiana cypress mulch.

The campaign is targeting The Home Depot Inc. and Lowe’s Companies Inc. Officials of both companies have said they do not use the mulch from coastal Louisiana, but environmentalists say they have traced it going into bags sold by company suppliers. Save Our Cypress is asking both companies to take a stance like Wal-Mart’s.

Jean Niemi, a Home Depot spokesman, said the company has asked its suppliers not to use cypress from coastal Louisiana and that it has given suppliers until Oct. 1 to confirm that they are not using the product. Lowe’s did not immediately responded.

“Wal-Mart has set the standard for cypress sustainability in Louisiana,” said Dan Favre, a campaign organizer with the Gulf Restoration Network, a New Orleans-based environmental group. “It’s not perfect, but it’s leaps and bounds ahead of what we’ve heard from Home Depot and Lowe’s.”

Officials predicted scores of loggers and mill workers would be driven out of work.

“This might be the proverbial nail in the cypress coffin,” said Frank Vallot, a mill owner who said 25 percent of his business depends on sales of cypress product.

Cypress logging has taken off in Louisiana in recent years, in large part because the slow-growing trees are finally reaching maturity after the last culling a century ago. About 800,000 acres of cypress grow in Louisiana.

Scientists say Louisiana’s fragile coast can ill-afford logging because of widespread ecosystem damage.

Foresters counter that the cypress stands are healthy and would regenerate. They say advanced logging techniques, such as using helicopters, cause little damage.

Wal-Mart shares fell 85 cents, or 2 percent, to $42.45, in Wednesday trade.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, September 06, 2007