Activists from the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) climbed a construction crane in Seattle to protest about Weyerhaeuser‘s logging of old-growth forest in Canada.
The protestors unfurled a 50x50ft banner that read: “Wake up Weyerhaeuser, protect forests now”, before being arrested on suspicion of reckless endangerment and criminal trespass.
RAN and Weyerhaeuser have been involved in talks for months about the company’s felling in areas of Canada which have never been logged.
Weyerhaeuser said it would not be intimidated by the group’s actions, even though previous successful campaigns by RAN against DIY retailers Home Depot and Lowe’s went on to involve boycott protests at the companies’ stores.
Meanwhile, the company has announced plans to sell about 300,000 acres of forest in Georgia.
The sale, designed to help reduce debt since its acquisition of Willamette Industries, follows decisions to sell 346,000 acres of timberland in Tennessee and the Carolinas.
