STATEMENT
IN SUPPORT OF SHAREHOLDER RESOLUTION
TO DECLASSIFY
WEYERHAUESER'S BOARD OF DIRECTORS
- Samantha
Mace
- Phone:
360-608-4814
- millicoma64@hotmail.com
My
name is Samantha Mace. I am here at the request of an
individual shareholder, Mr. Bartlett Naylor, to present a
resolution for declassifying the Board of Directors and to
offer a supporting statement.
The
resolution says:
RESOLVED:
That Weyerhaeuser stockholders urge the Board of Directors
take the necessary steps, in compliance with state law, to
declassify the Board for the purpose of director elections.
The board declassification shall be completed in a manner
that does not affect the unexpired terms of directors
previously elected.
SUPPORTING
STATEMENT
Currently,
Weyerhaeuser is composed of three classes of directors. Only
a third of the board faces election each year; each
individual director faces election once every three years.
Such infrequent director elections reduce the accountability
of each director to shareholders. Many shareholders have
voiced growing concern about classified boards.
In
the case of the Weyerhaeuser board, I am concerned that
insulating management from the long-term interests of
shareholders has led the Company to adopt policies that are
not in the best interests of the company, or the communities
in which the company operates.
I
have a great deal of firsthand experience with
Weyerhaeuser's logging practices and lackluster
environmental stewardship. I grew up near Allegany, OR, a
small logging community inland from Coos Bay, OR, downstream
from Weyerhaeuser's massive logging operations on the
Millicoma Forest. The vast majority of this 200,000-acre
private forest has been clearcut logged, much to the
detriment of the health of the forest, rivers, fish and
wildlife. The bay and rivers have suffered from massive
chemical pollution and nutrient loading. Once abundant wild
coho salmon runs are now a fraction of what they once
were.
Weyerhaeuser's
gross mismanagement of its timberlands and the resulting
environmental destruction that I witnessed growing up have
prompted me to devote much of my life to working for the
protection of forests and rivers.
I
support logging when done sustainably. Many friends and
family members made their livings in the woods and mills in
my hometown. I have seen private timberland sustainably and
profitably managed and know it can be done.
Unfortunately,
Weyerhaeuser's logging practices are far from sustainable.
The damage wrecked on my hometown and surrounding
communities by Weyerhaeuser as well as Georgia-Pacific
Corporation is a tragedy for both the land and people where
I grew up.
Weyerhaeuser
logged its lands in the Coos Bay area in the 1960s and '70s
like there was no limit to the supply of trees. The company
clearcut steep slopes triggering mudslides and clogging
streams with silt. It sprayed massive amounts of herbicides
on these clearcuts that polluted people's drinking water. To
add insult to injury, Weyerhaeuser exported many of its raw
logs overseas rather than feed the mills in Coos Bay and
keep my neighbors working. Those family-wage jobs all went
to the Far East.
These
unsustainable logging practices brought Coos Bay to its
knees in the early '80s. Not only was the limitless
clearcutting devastating to our rivers, forests and drinking
water, but also it was devastating to the community and
damaging for Weyerhaeuser. A glutted market brought the
binge to an end and massive unemployment to my hometown. And
with the closed mills came some of the highest alcoholism,
drug use and domestic violence rates in Oregon. Today, Coos
Bay leads in methamphetamine production, not wood
products.
Weyerhaeuser
treated Coos Bay and its other company towns as natural
resource colonies--much like the imperial interests of the
18th century treated the North American
settlements&endash;as sources of wealth to siphon off to
cities and interests far away.
I
find it illuminating to visit the site of Weyerhaeuser's
corporate headquarters and stand here in front of you. It
brings home to me where the incredible natural wealth of my
watershed went&endash;far from my hometown. I can't help but
wonder if just a little bit more of this wealth had been
invested in my community, what a different place Coos Bay
could be.
It
takes more than spending millions of dollars on an ad
campaign with catchy slogans touting fictional environmental
practices to transform Weyerhaeuser into an environmentally
and socially responsible company. Weyerhaeuser's claim to be
certified sustainable remains an empty promise. The last
time I drove through the Millicoma tree farm a couple of
years ago, it remained a clearcut moonscape. I have seen
little change in how Weyerhaeuser manages its lands or how
it treats the communities in which it operates.
Logging
everything in western Oregon, and then moving to another
part of the country to log everything there is not
sustainable for communities left in this company's wake.
While Weyerhaeuser moves on to another part of the world,
towns like Coos Bay are stuck, surrounded by miles of
clearcuts, damaged fisheries, and dismal
economies.
Why
should shareholders care? It is good business to manage
forests for the long term, rather than overcutting one
region and moving onto another. Long-term profitability is
better served through enlightened environmental practices.
It is also good business to be honest with the public about
Weyehaeuser forest practices. Huge sums are invested in
public relations. These investments are jeopardized along
with the Weyerhaeuser name when the company's message of
environmental stewardship does not match the reality of
clearcut forests, toxic pollution and silted salmon
streams.
The
public is becoming increasingly aware of the importance of
socially and environmentally responsible business practices
to the future of this country. Weyerhaeuser's recent
prolific advertising campaign is clear proof of that. This
growing awareness is causing more and more people to vote
with their dollar by supporting companies with good
environmental records over corporations that don't respect
the communities where they operate. Companies that
demonstrate good environmental stewardship are going to have
the competitive edge over companies that fail to respond to
the public's wishes. Shareholders can and should urge their
companies to operate in a manner that protects the
environment and society. It makes good business
sense.
Weyerhaeuser
has felt the impacts of public perception in the past. In
his book entitled "Millicoma," Al Smyth, who once managed
the Millicoma operation, Smith describes how Weyerhaeuser
grew concerned about the beating its image was taking in the
late 1980s as the public grew increasingly aware and
concerned about the mismanagement of both federal and
private forests in the Northwest. To quote Al Smyth, "The
practices of 'The Tree Growing Company' that made it a hero
in the 1960s and 1970s no longer represented the values of a
changed society." Weyerhaeuser realized it was far out of
step with society. Yet, even Smyth says that the company did
not plan to stop clearcutting, despite the calls by the
public to end the damaging practice. And it is clear today
that Weyerhaeuser still has not made a commitment to
environmental and community stewardship.
Input
and direction from shareholders can provide a critical
reality check for a company out of step with the desires of
the public and the needs of society. When boards and leaders
become insulated, a company can become dangerously detached
from the interests of the public, which can jeopardize the
health of the company. This has happened to Weyerhaeuser in
the past, and is in danger of happening again.
Weyerhaeuser
is a master at the public relations campaign. The latest
example is the full-page ads claiming the company has become
certified as sustainable. This is the company's response to
the growing public demand for certified sustainable wood
products. Unfortunately, the certification program used by
Weyerhaeuser is hardly independent or credible, as it was
developed by the timber industry itself.
While
the company may be able to fool the public with an ad
campaign for a period of time, an increasingly shrewd public
will recognize whether Weyerhaeuser's logging practices
change on the ground. Weyerhaeuser's reputation with the
nation's public ultimately rests not on full-page ads, but
healthy rivers, forests, clean drinking water for
communities, and thriving fish and wildlife. I urge the
shareholders in this room to look seriously at the sad
legacy Weyerhaeuser has left towns and communities across
the country. Take a tour of some of Weyerhaeuser's lands on
your own and look beyond the beauty strip. And then urge
your company to chart a new direction in the 21st
century.
This
resolution to declassify Weyerhaeuser's board of directors
can help the company be more nimble and responsive to the
concerns of both the shareholders and the public. Holding
yearly elections that are not staggered will allow the
shareholders to exercise responsible and necessary oversight
of this corporation. I urge the shareholders to support, and
the board of directors to uphold, this
resolution.
With
this resolution, we are asking other shareholders to
consider modest reforms to help improve accountability of
the board to investors. Improving corporate governance will
lead to a more enlightened approach to profiting from
environmentally sensitive resources and the communities that
rely on them.
Thank
you for your time.
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