Judging a Book by its Clearcutter
The Logging Industry’s Long-standing Campaign to Misinform Youth
A s a young kid, I grew to love and protect the environment because of the conservation books that captivated me with their sincere storytelling, witty rhymes, and colorful illustrations. One story that especially moved me and millions of other children across numerous generations was The Lorax written by Dr. Seuss and published in 1971. The book advocated for the end of unsustainable clearcutting practices done by the logging industry, and sparked a grassroots movement of environmental literature that further spread the message of protecting nature. The Lorax illustrates the power of words to express the truth and help save the environment. It also emphasizes the power of children to promote positive change.
Unfortunately, well-meaning environmentalists were not the only ones vying for children’s attention. Powerful corporate logging interests sought to censor and distort the truth about excessive, unhealthy clearcutting practices on trees. What is more appalling is they have succeeded in doing so. They banned The Lorax in 1989 at one school in the United States and even produced an alternative story for children on how logging is safe (it is not necessarily so). In 2020, The Lorax is no longer banned, but Big Timber has since permeated the internet and government with disinformation on the potential dangers of clearing forests.
“The ordeal revealed that as authors advocate for children to safeguard the planet, their outreach extends to the caretakers of those young individuals pushing them to take action.”
These attempts by the logging industry and its associates in regards to The Lorax were not just hiccups. The fact that they went so far as to suppress what children can read, misinform on how sustainable and non-lethal logging is in their own stories, and now expand their reach into all sectors of publication and policy should inspire anyone who cares about protecting the forests to take action. In the context of environmental justice, it shows how the youth are an unexamined group of this injustice, and more reporting should happen.
The Lorax was published in honor of Earth Day and coincided with the reduction of logging by the timber industry. In California alone, the industry experienced a decline of timber harvest lumber falling from approximately 5,000 to 3,000 million board feet (42 to 25 billion cubic feet) in the decades before and after the Seuss book came out. In combination with the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and eventual market downfalls, the Lorax aided the decrease in excessive logging practices. Yet it should be acknowledged that there are still extreme amounts of clearcutting being done.
The Lorax involves a logger known as the Once-ler that exploits the abundance of Truffula trees by cutting as many of them down to produce a top-selling item called the Thneed. Everyone craves the Thneed except for the earnest, small, orange creature known as the Lorax. The Lorax detests the mowing down of Truffula forests for the purpose of getting rich over an unnecessary product. But the Once-ler rapidly expands his business, destroys all the trees left, and pollutes the ecosystem. This makes it impossible for the fishes, bears or other animals to live there. The story ends with hope in the youth when the now-regretful Once-ler urges a young boy to plant the last remaining Truffula tree seed.
This children’s tale is an allegory of the rivalry of corporate greed and consumerism against the conservation of the environment. It cautions about the danger of unsustainable practices like clearcutting. Most important is how with witty rhyme, colorful illustrations, and sincere storytelling, The Lorax relates to children and uplifts them to be activists for the forests and environment. However, its power to communicate a conservationist message to the youth would provoke backlash as the book became popular.
Barely two decades after its publication, The Lorax faced censorship in a school district located in Laytonville, California, at the heart of the state’s logging industry. The Harwood and Bailey families who owned logging companies there were the prominent spokespeople behind the book’s ban. When these families heard complaints by their own children about their businesses being harmful to trees and the environment, they concluded that The Lorax was to blame.
The suppression of ideas from the book by individuals in the logging industry violated the 1st Amendment, and this injustice was not tolerated by national press outlets such as the Los Angeles Times and People or local environmental groups, teachers, and young students, who pressured the school district to end the ban. The ordeal revealed that as authors advocate for children to safeguard the planet, their outreach extends to the caretakers of those young individuals pushing them to take action. That action might be to protect the environment, or to safeguard their economic interests that harm the environment.
Five years after The Lorax was banned in Laytonville, members of the logging industry tried to copycat and twist the Seuss tale. In 1994, the National Wood Flooring Manufacturers’ Association published Truax as a defense against The Lorax’s depiction of the logging industry’s corporate greed and exploitation of forests. However, the book was full of misinformation.
The protagonist logger Truax claims that simply planting five trees for every cut tree assists in preventing deforestation, but other sources say how the problem of unsustainable logging demands more than an idealistic, long-term solution of replanting forests. Another egregious point Truax makes is he admits it is necessary to sacrifice certain species for logging to continue. Skidmore College students made a website to respond to this assault on biodiversity. They cited research that when there is some management of the forests, biodiversity is partially harmed. At 100% logging intensity, more elimination of biodiversity of trees and the appearance of invasive species occurred.
“The attempts by the logging industry to clearcut the paper people buy and control what children read are part of a larger disinformation campaign targeting the youth and needs to be challenged.”
Truax distorts the truth to misinform children about the dangers of clearcutting on the forests and environment in general. This is just as awful as censoring The Lorax. Now opting for a strategy of misinformation over outright censorship, the logging industry distributed 200,000 copies to public elementary schools, a major victory for the logging industry’s campaign to sell the younger generation on clearcutting.
Fast forward to the 2020s, and a whole new generation of children are learning about how to conserve the environment, including preserving our forests. Both The Lorax and Truax still exist for children to read. These books carry relevance in today’s battle for conservation of the forests versus the practice of excessive logging.
There are attempts to combat these unsustainable logging practices, but they so far have not improved in considering the reduced oversight and permitted enabling of their practices. In spite of this, elementary school children read The Lorax to increase their awareness about caring for the environment. While Truax exists in some curriculums too, high school class programs implement both children’s books to foster critical thinking skills in debating how to promote the environment, implement proper logging practices, and how big logging businesses expand their influence in shaping environmental policy. College students, such as the ones mentioned earlier in fact-checking a claim made by Truax, apply research to spread awareness on logging practices on a website for anyone to access. There are even young, progressive individuals who have taken to a legislative role in government for sustainability and curbing climate change.
Unfortunately, the logging industry stayed vocal, and promoted its campaign to log as they please on social media online platforms like Facebook and in lobbying within the government. Just as it happened with Truax, the industry is downplaying the threat of clearcutting and suppressing science.
ProPublica reports how just alone “the Oregon Forest & Industries Council, a statewide timber lobbying organization, spent thousands of dollars on Facebook advertisements promoting forest management to reduce wildfire risks.” They are also working with three other industry groups to publish editorials pushing Oregon to log on federal lands. Considering sizable portions of young demographic groups ages 13 to 25 use Facebook and other social media sites, this is a Truax 2.0. Not only children, but also adolescents and young adults are exposed to this misinformation. This steers us as a society away from properly dealing with the consequences of unsustainable logging, which include a rise in water pollution and wildfires.
The attempts by the logging industry to clear-cut the paper people buy and control what children read are part of a larger disinformation campaign targeting the youth and needs to be challenged. Much progress still needs to be made to eliminate clearcutting and other unsustainable practices, including holding the timber industry accountable for logging 3.5 million acres of California forest in the past 20 years alone. Along with deregulation and continually reduced oversight, we now need to take a stronger stand to permanently end clearcutting and protect children and the environment. By writing letters to school boards to ensure a pro-forest curriculum, donating and volunteering in anti-clearcutting campaigns, peacefully demonstrating against logging, and electing pro-environment political officials that will pass anti-clearcutting legislation, we will see these goals become reality.
