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I was recently informed that the owners of my favorite clothing store, the Gap, had purchased 235,000 acres of Redwood forest in California. Their goal is to log the remaining old growth trees on this land using clear-cutting and herbicides. These methods severely damage the forest and are harmful to the birds, fish and animals that live in the forest.
When my godfather first told me about what the owners of the Gap were doing my first reaction was "I'm not listening". I refused to believe that the friendly store that I loved to shop at, where the employees were so nice and where they kindly helped me find anything I was looking for, were really being paid and employed by evil people who refuse to see the wrong in destroying the environment. The Fisher family (who also own the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic) doesn't need the lumber from the redwood forests. They are already multimillionaires so why don't they try to make the world a better place? They should just take their chainsaws and go home to the Gap where they belong. They don't belong in the California redwood forest destroying some of the only remaining redwoods.  The more I thought about what the Fishers were doing the more upset I became. I have followed with fascination what Julia Butterfly has done. She spent two years in a redwood tree called Luna. Not once touching the ground because she was so upset at what the Pacific Lumber Company was doing. She cares so much about the redwoods that she was willing to give up two whole years of her life for a good cause. Two whole years of not going shopping or to the movies. Two whole years of not going out to dinner or lunch. When you think about what Julia has done it makes you look at life in a whole different way. Maybe the simple things that make up what we consider important about life are not so important after all. Hey, maybe I really don't need the Gap! Amanda Warren is a 5th grader from Milton, Massachusetts.  old-growth redwood logging and unfair wages. For more information on the activities of the Fisher family and boycotts of the Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy see the website of Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap and the Greenwood Watershed Association at http://www.elksoft.com/gwa/ Other Articles About California Forests in This Issue Redwood News Update Great News for Sequoia National Forest |
