Baseball Star Al Leiter Makes Pitch for Old Growth Protection

ARCHIVED 2002–2016: Originally distributed via the eWire press wire service. Preserved as historical record.

Baseball Star Al Leiter Makes Pitch for Old Growth Protection

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE |

Conservation & Wildlife

Corporate Responsibility

Science & Technology

Syndication Partners

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

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Baseball Star Al Leiter Makes Pitch for Old Growth Protection

Letter sent to Logging Giant Boise Cascade as Public Campaign Intensifies

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, Apr. 3 -/E-Wire/-- As Opening Day has baseball fans across the country eagerly anticipating another season, baseball star Al Leiter took a moment recently to take part in another American pastime; writing to protect old growth forests. The New York Mets All-Star pitcher wrote a letter to Boise Cascade recently, urging the logging company to stop selling wood products from old growth forests.

Boise Cascade has come under fire recently for its legal efforts to overturn the U.S. Roadless Area Conservation Policy, an initiative that would protect nearly 60 million acres of the country's last remaining wilderness areas. The policy has been called the most popular federal policymaking decision in U.S. history, with more than 1.6 million letters sent in and nearly 95 percent in favor of the strongest possible protection.

"Three years ago, I first lent my voice to the effort to preserve the world's last remaining old growth forests," Leiter wrote. "I believe that old growth forest protection is an issue that's as "All-American" as baseball and apple pie, and that it is an idea whose time has come."

Many of Boise Cascade's top customers including Kinko's, Home Depot, Lowe's, and many others, have all agreed to eliminate wood from endangered forests and to give preference to sustainable alternatives. IN all, more than four hundred companies—including an estimated twenty-five percent of the U.S. lumber market—have pledged to help protect the world's last remaining old growth forests by eliminating the purchase of wood and paper from these regions.

"I have been heartened to observe Home Depot and many of our country's top companies disavow the use of old growth wood and paper," Leiter added. "I hope Boise Cascade will join these companies and help create a better world for all of our kids."

Boise Cascade acts as a primary distributor of wood products from old growth forests globally. The company sells wood that has been ripped from endangered forests in the Amazon Basin, tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia, and temperate rainforests in British Columbia and Chile, among other areas. According to the World Resources Institute, more than three-quarters of the world's old growth forests have already been logged and degraded, much within the past three decades. In the United States, less than five percent of our original forests remain unprotected.

Rainforest Action Network

Michael Brune, 415/398-4404; Shannon Wright, 415/596-7246

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

To Transmit Your News Over E-Wire, visit http://www.ewire.com or

call 1-[REDACTED-PHONE]. E-Wire Is Broadcast To Millions Of Readers Worldwide

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

1993 - 2003. All Rights Reserved.