Children Get City to Bar Hardwoods

Little children Tuesday night led the Santa Clarita City Council into the arena of international trade.

At the urging of fifth-graders, the council barred city government use of 43 tropical hardwoods, thereby joining a campaign to save rain forests in South America, Asia and Africa.

Such bans have been adopted by seven other U. S. cities and states, among them Santa Monica, San Francisco and Arizona. In July the Los Angeles City Council ordered its attorneys to draw up a similar ordinance.

The boycotted hardwoods include ebony, teak and mahogany. The hardwood industry says the boycott will hasten the destruction of the forests because if landowners cannot sell tropical wood, they will clear the land for cattle and crops.

In Santa Clarita, a heavily Republican city where environmental consciousness is strong, the council adopted the ban despite lobbying by the International Hardwood Products Assn., based in Alexandria, Va.

“We want the children to inherit something worthwhile and to take care of it,” said Councilwoman Jan Heidt. “You children have a greater stake in the future than we do because you’re younger.”

City officials said the ban itself will have little direct impact. Santa Clarita currently does not use tropical hardwood products like teak or mahogany desks. The ban applies only to the city and its contractors.

Council members said they hope residents will also adopt the ban. “This is primarily a gesture,” but at least it will show youngsters that “when students speak, Santa Clarita listens,” city spokeswoman Gail Foy said.

A fifth-grade class from Highlands Elementary School suggested the prohibition shortly before school adjourned in the spring. It had learned in science class that up to 50,000 acres of rain forest are destroyed daily, resulting in the loss of plant and animal species. Destroying rain forests also increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is believed to contribute to global warming.

The council waited until the children were back in school before taking a vote.

“Maybe we can get the state to do it, and then the whole country,” said Wendy Zebelle, 11, of Saugus.

The council may have opened a Pandora’s box. The children in the class have begun worrying about the increasing number of housing tracts in the city, which gobble up their favorite spots to play, teacher JoAnn Marsh said.