Comment

Wal-Mart Kills Trees

originally published October 3, 2001

comment-tree1.jpg Video stills by Mary Jane Haas

I am sickened by the craven commercialism of a company that claims to be "American friendly." These past 10 days I've had the dubious pleasure of dealing with the Wal-Mart machine in an effort to preserve a stand of hardwoods at the very front of their property (next to Lowe's on Epps Bridge Parkway), the site of the new westside Wal-Mart Supercenter (which of course begs the question, "Do we really need another Wal-Mart?").

I played phone tag for a couple of days, and as each day went by and more trees were felled I became desperate for someone to hear my voice. On Friday, Sept. 21, I put in a call to their home office and stated that if someone did not return my call by the end of the day, I would be chaining myself to the largest tree.

Gary Tally and Belinda Miller, construction and engineering managers for Wal-Mart (501-273-8845) called me back immediately. They promised me no more trees would be taken down until after we had a meeting.

They lied to me. The meeting was set for Wednesday morning, and Tuesday morning the largest oak was needlessly pushed over.

Frantic phone calls were not returned by Wal-Mart. The construction company did return my call and stated Gary Tally told them to take down the tree. The engineering firm, hired by Wal-Mart, that was to meet with me Wednesday called me and said the Wal-Mart office was being inundated with phone calls from people about the trees, and he told me that if there were 50 people and the press waiting with me Wednesday morning that he would not speak with me. I honored his request: no press and only two other people besides myself - Kate Blane, a member of the Athens Grow Green Coalition and David Cox, a concerned citizen.

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The covert objective was, talk pretty, stall any media attention that might delay their project and then do exactly what they'd always intended - push over the trees and too bad for the environment.

Wal-Mart didn't even have the ovaries to come to the meeting directly. They sent the engineering firm as their mouthpiece. I was told that Wal-Mart instructed them to tell me that they would not honor my request. They then said there was one tree (not even on their property, incidentally) that they could save, on the very edge of an easement nowhere near the stand I was talking about. I wonder if this promise will be kept?

I can just hear all their fancy retorts to my protests, and I say, "So what?" People could see your acres-large store without those trees being removed.

You, Wal-Mart, could have risen above moral turpitude and reserved this spot as an oasis in the middle of commercial devastation. You could have been honest and upright and courageous and spoken with me directly at the meeting.

In short, you could have done the right thing and sacrificed the worth of the lot the trees stood on in the name of your supposed love for America and reserved this green space for future generations to enjoy on their way to spend money in your monstrosity.

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A 19-year-old boy was on the site today, and he made the comment to me, "Oh, they'll plant new trees." I replied, "You'll never see trees like these growing here in your lifetime." We have to teach our children that trees are not like disposable cameras - use them once and buy new ones.

My child understands. She had a petition signed by 100 people at her school. This was entirely her idea, and Helen Keller's quote at the top of the petition read, "I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something." Bravo, Emily! You inspire me.

We all can and must do something. Let's get a statewide tree ordinance set in place. Let's make sellers aware of how they influence buyers to leave trees as a contingency of the sale. Let's make these large, prosperous companies accountable for the damages they inflict.

These trees were a symbol for me of all that is good in this world. These trees were life in the midst of destruction. In light of September 11, hadn't we better start re-evaluating our priorities, our values? Trees seem to pale in significance against the loss of life on that date, but trees are an important piece of the whole web of life. Peace begins in small ways in small places, and the ripples shake the world.