11/16/2006, 9:16 a.m. CTBy CAIN BURDEAU The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Environmentalists here launched a campaign Wednesday to discourage the sale of cypress mulch, saying use of the aromatic wood slivers, popular with gardeners, may endanger the comeback of cypress stands along Louisiana’s fragile coast.

The “Save Our Cypress” campaign, which will use radio ads and student activists to spread its message, opens up a new public relations front in a simmering row between loggers and environmentalists in Louisiana over the culling of the once-abundant cypress.

The campaign aims to dissuade three of the biggest retailers — Lowe’s Home Improvement, Wal-Mart and The Home Depot — to stop selling cypress mulch that’s harvested from Louisiana’s coastal forests, which they say are endangered.

Leslie March, the chair of the Delta Chapter of the Sierra Club, called on the retailers “to live up to their corporate policies of sustainability.”

A number of factors have coincided to make Louisiana a prime spot for cypress logging. Cypress forests are finally coming back after being cut wholesale a century ago — it takes about 100 years for cypress to mature to the point where it makes good wood — and demand for cypress is steady. About 150,000 trees are cut a year, according to state figures.

So, loggers, who’ve gotten most of their cypress from Florida in recent years, are setting their sights on Louisiana.

But making mulch out of Louisiana’s cypress, environmentalists say, is the last thing Louisiana needs because the trees keep storm surges from hurricanes down and are a vital aspect of healthy swamps — something Louisiana is losing rapidly.

“It’s akin to shredding the Constitution to make post-it notes,” said Aaron Viles of the Gulf Restoration Network, a New Orleans-based environmental group. Mulch, he said, is “a dispensable product made from something so valuable.”

The timber industry counters that the cypress being harvested come from areas where the trees will grow back. A recent analysis by the state forester found cypress growing back at much faster rates that they are dying or being cut.

“No cypress is harvested in unsustainable areas — flat out, period,” said Buck Vandersteen, the executive director of the Louisiana Forestry Association, the timber industry’s lobbying group.

Logging advocates have said the mulch produced in Louisiana comes from leftover wood at mills and that loggers aren’t cutting down trees just to make mulch. Home Depot’s suppliers say none of its mulch comes from coastal Louisiana, a company statement said.

But on Wednesday the coalition of environmental groups behind the “Save Our Cypress” campaign presented a series of photographs showing cypress logs being hauled out of the Atchafalaya swamps to a mill and placed into a grinder. Hundreds of bags of cypress mulch, the same brand sold at the three retailers, are seen sitting in the mill’s yard on crates.

Attempts to reach the mill were unsuccessful.

“What they don’t have evidence is that it (the mulch from that mill) shows up in The Home Depot,” said Don Harrison, a Home Depot spokesman.

Karen Cobb, a spokeswoman for Lowe’s, said her company will “look into” the green groups’ allegations. She noted that Lowe’s has an agreement with its mulch vendors to not sell wood from coastal Louisiana.

“The mulch that sells at Lowe’s originates from well-managed and non-endangered forests,” she said.

Tara Raddohl, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said Wal-Mart is “looking into this product” and that “sustainability is a huge initiative for Wal-Mart.”

Environmentalists say a third-party certification system needs to be set up so only cypress from healthy forests is sold as mulch.

The fight over mulch comes after months of wrangling among scientists, loggers and politicians over how to manage Louisiana’s cypress forests, most of which sit on private wetlands. Gov. Kathleen Blanco set up panels to make recommendations on whether she should step in and stop logging in endangered swamps.

_______