Office Depot has named Evie Witten to the new position of boreal ecologist.
In this role, she will collaborate with such environmental groups as the Nature Conservancy, Conservation International and others to promote responsible logging and timber harvesting practices in the Canadian boreal forest, a heavy source of catalog paper.
Witten previously served as director of the World Wildlife Fund Alaska field office, securing the conservation of biologically important areas, with particular focus on the Bering Sea. She also worked for the US Forest Service documenting and modeling fire and other natural disturbances in Alaska forests. She also has extensive prior consulting experience as a forest ecologist, according to Office Depot.
The issue of forest conservation is becoming hotter for catalogers and other mailers.
In January, San Francisco-based Forest Ethics ran an ad in The New York Times aimed at shaming the Victoria’s Secret catalog and its parent Limited Brands Inc. for apparently using paper from endangered Canadian forests in the more than 1 million catalogs it sends per day.
Forest Ethics placed the ad in the Times after Limited decided to procure paper taken from an endangered boreal forest in Alberta instead of using paper with recycled content, says Tzeporah Berman, the organization’s program director (Direct, March 15).
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