Home Depot victory
After weathering a two-year barrage of grassroots demonstrations, boycotts and ad campaigns, Home Depot has agreed to halt all sales of lumber from old-growth and endangered trees - redwood, cedar and tropical lauan. Home Depot CEO Arthur Blank announced that, by 2002, Home Depot would sell only "certified" wood products. Blank also promised that the company "will use the power of its pur- chasing dollars to vote for products that do the most to preserve environmentally sensitive areas." Rainforest Action Network's Mike Brune called Home Depot's decision "a great victory for the forests." Kudos, also, to RAN's fellow campaigners at American Lands, Greenpeace and Global Response.

Rice your engines
A Chinese greeting translates, "Have you had your rice this morning?" One of these mornings, you might be able to get behind the wheel of a rice-powered car. A proposed bio-refinery in Oroville, California would be able to convert 75,000 tons of rice straw, orchard trimmings and farm wastes into 22 million gallons of ethanol fuel a year. Ethanol is already being used as an oxygenator to replace MTBE, a water-polluting carcinogen that is now being phased out of gasoline.

American Indians win Army land
The former Oakland (CA) Army Base is proving fertile ground for a 225-acre environment-friendly industrial park planned by United Indian Nations [1320 Webster Street, Oakland, CA 94612-3204, (510) 763-3410] and Opus West Corp. The UIN plan emphasizes light industry and pooled resources to minimize impacts on the 400-acre site. Half of the project's 2,000 new jobs would go to American Indians and low-income Oaklanders. UIN's previous efforts include renovating housing on a former naval air station and creating a Native American cultural center at a former naval hospital. "The military has controlled our lives," reflects UIN Director Sally Gallegos, "It's ironic that we're coming back to them to develop our community."

Puttin' on the Res
Minnesota's White Earth Indian Reservation (Ojibwa/Anishinabe) has found a way to celebrate native traditions while fostering economic independence. Cast your vote of approval by ordering from the tasty assortment of indigenous gourmet treats in their Native Harvest Catalog: maple syrup, buffalo sausage, wild rice, raspberry preserves and more. [White Earth Land Recovery Project, Route 1, Box 291, Ponsford, MN 56575, (218) 573-3448, fax: (218) 573-3444]

Nearly 10,000 miles-per-gallon car!
The Microjoule, a car built at a French school and piloted by a 10-year old driver, set a new world fuel-efficiency record at Britain's Silverstone Raceway. Microjoule traveled ten miles on a couple of spoonfuls of gasoline - the equivalent of nearly 10,000 miles-per-gallon. Entries in the Shell Oil-hosted EcoMarathon came from all over Europe. Some teams used advanced materials like titanium and carbon fiber in their cars; others employed old sewing-machine and washer parts. Teams were given a choice of gasoline or diesel fuel. Solar-power assistance was permitted.

Green Party gets its woman
When Audie Bock, a 53-year-old Asia scholar and businesswoman from Piedmont, California, decided to challenge a former mayor for a seat in the state assembly, no one expected her to win. But win she did. What made the upset even more unexpected was the fact that Bock ran under the banner of the environmentalist Green Party. An avid supporter of mass transit, Bock rode the train to her Sacramento swearing-in ceremony, with her parents and teenage daughter in tow. Her supporters already have chosen a reelection slogan: "Bock by popular demand."

The write stuff
Chicago schoolteacher Maria Gilfillan encouraged her inner-city second-grade class to write 25 polite letters to Boise Cascade to protest that company's plan to build the world's largest woodchip mill in Chile. When Boise Cascade's Ralph Poore phoned and threatened to report Gilfillan to her principal for teaching her students "bad things" about his company, the students learned a valuable lesson: They had the power to cause a big stir in a giant corporation. "It's not enough to teach about the importance of rainforests," Gilfillan believes. "We have to do something to help protect them." [Global Response, PO Box 7490, Boulder, CO 80306; (303) 444-0306, fax: (303) 449-9794, www.globalresponse.org]

Tasmanian sanctuary
A spectacular new wildlife reserve now hugs the volcanic coastline of Tasmania. The Tasmanian Seamounts Marine Reserve includes 70 submerged and extinct volcanoes. Many of the reserve's bottom-living plants and animals can be found nowhere else. The area is now protected from trawling, mining and oil exploration.

Swatch what you do
Your tree-free paper shopping is much easier now with the tastily designed Simplelife Guide to Tree-Free, Recycled and Certified Papers. In addition to presenting the history of - and case for - alternative printing stock, the book includes one and 4-color samples of each paper showcased. The upshot: You can see how your job might turn out on tobacco paper, banana leaf paper, denim paper, recycled wood pulp paper, or hemp, kenaf or bagasse (sugar cane residue) paper - even on paper made from old US currency. [$15.00 plus $3.95 shipping. Simplelife Books, PO Box 12, Boonville, CA 95415, www.simplelife.com]

Tree-free timber
Fiber Futures promotes the use of agricultural waste and other tree-free materials in paper, textiles and building construction. Fiber Futures [Presidio, Box 29363, San Francisco, CA 94129, (415) 561-6598, fax: (415) 561-6480] collaborates with businesses, farmers, investors and communities "to achieve outcomes in the public interest."

Booking on nature
Bringing the World Alive: A Bibliography of Nature Stories for Children opens the door to literary works that educate and inspire. Books like The Journey of the Red-Eyed Tree Frog, The Star Maiden and Old Turtle are guaranteed to evoke bursts of sharpened perceptions, deep insights and joyous connections with the natural world. [This catalog is available for $6.00 from the Orion Society, 136 East 64th St., New York, NY 10021, (212) 758-6475, fax: (212) 758-6784.] -SRS

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E-mail Sharon Skolnick at <sskolnick@earthisland.org>.