Dogwood Alliance Statement on IP Land Sale:

This morning, announced the sale of 5.1 Million acres of its land holdings, mostly in the Southern United States. This sale of nearly 85% of their land to Resource Management Services, LLC and TimberStar comes on the tail of the sale of 218,000 acres or less than 3% of the holdings last week to The Nature Conservancy and the Conservation Fund.

Below are some key points for consideration around this sale:

• Southern forests are some of the most biologically diverse in the world, but have been exploited for generations by the paper industry. • Large-scale clearcuts and millions of acres of sterile pine plantations now scar the Southern landscape. • The sale of 218,000 acres as part of a conservation transaction represents a good first step towards protecting the endangered forests of the South and should be applauded. • managed its lands under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certification scheme, which is a misguided and mislabeled program that allows for logging of endangered forests, continued conversion of native forests to sterile pine plantations and large-scale clearcutting. • Resource Management Services and TimberStar plan to continue operating under the SFI principals. • IP’s sale is part of a continuing trend amongst the timber industry to divest their landholding. Georgia-Pacific and Weyerhaeuser have already sold most or all of their land and companies such as Bowater have announced the intent to follow suit. • IP should consider including in the land sale stipulations that avoid further conversion of native forests to sterile plantations and an end to logging of the most ecologically sensitive lands. • Bowater, one of the largest paper producers in the South, announced last year, a commitment to stop purchasing fiber from native forests that are converted to plantations after 2007. can and should follow suit. • There is an increasing demand from the marketplace for sustainably made paper products and a number of Fortune 500 companies, including Office Depot, Staples, and Kinko’s have strong environmental paper policies in place. • Southern forests have long been exploited and need a break from business-as-usual forestry practices.

Scot Quaranda

Scot has been with Dogwood Alliance since 2000 and has served as a campaign organizer, field director, campaign director and is currently the communications director. In his role he is in charge of story telling, creative, media relations, and PR. He has a dual BA from Drew University in Psychology and Philosophy and has worked previously with the Fund for Public Interest and in music PR for artists such as Buddy Guy and Ani DiFranco.