The Dogwood Alliance is picking up all the right kinds of enemies in their work to protect Southern Forests.

Gandhi once said that when you seek justice, first the opposition ignores you, then they attack you and then you win (paraphrased). We must be close to victory if a recent commentary in the Asheville Citizen-Times is any indication.

On Saturday, May 20, local gadfly Don Mallicoat, published a malicious piece on all that’s wrong with Dogwood Alliance and our friends at Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project in the Citizen-Times. The piece included misrepresentations, right-wing propaganda and a clear lack of understanding of the work that we do.

Read the whole piece

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We are writing to ask you, if you have a moment or two to spare, to fire off a quick letter in response to the Asheville Citizen-Times. You can do it online.

Here are some key points to consider. First, environmental protection is not the work of extremists. It is the work of people wanting to protect our Southern culture and heritage for this and future generations.

Second, we do not spend our time litigating, we are working in the marketplace to convince Fortune 500 companies to join us and companies like Staples, Office Depot and Bowater in transforming the paper industry.

Third, our work is grounded in facts and science, including key research done by the USFS and leading universities across the South.

Lastly, the forest industry and foresters are changing and adapting to the modern age by dramatically increasing the amount of recycled paper available for purchase and signing on to truly sustainable forestry practices like those endorsed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

We appreciate your consideration and if you want to discuss any of this or have questions or comments, feel free to email me at scot@dogwoodalliance.org.

For our forests and communities,

Scot Quaranda
Communications Director
Dogwood Alliance