Archived press release

Bog trashers get prize

4 October 2000

Scotts is responsible for damaging the UK's largest lowland peatlands at Thorne Moor and Hatfield Moor in Yorkshire and Wedholme Flow in Cumbria for peat-based garden compost products. Scotts is based in Ohio and has its UK HQ in Godalming, Surrey.

While speaking at a conference proclaiming the quality of the Scotts brand, Charles M Berger Chairman and Chief Executive of the massive US corporation was ambushed by campaigners who presented him with the award. Despite a ten year campaign by all the UK's major nature conservation organisations and local people, the peatlands have continued to be damaged.Last year over 70 environmental organisations from around the World (including the Sierra Club,Humane Society, Earth Island Institute and many others) called on Berger to halt the damage to the sites which are officially recognised for their wildlife value in the UK. Berger did not even bother to respond personally to the
concerns.

FOE believes Scotts is especially irresponsible because it has claimed that the sites are not important for wildlife and that its operations - which strip-mine layers of peat from the site - are not damaging. This is despite their recognition as Sites of Special Scientific Interest the UK's national designation for areas important for wildlife. Last month the sites were further proposed as candidate Special Areas of Conservation under the European Habitats Directive which introduces an improved level of legal protection and opens up the prospects that Scotts'damaging activities will be halted because the sites will be recognised as being among Europe's internationally important wildlife areas. Yet Scotts has stated it intends to continue damaging the sites.

Craig Bennett of FOE said: "Scotts really deserves recognition for its environmental irresponsibility and we hope Mr Berger is proud of what his company is doing and of today's award. In the UK and especially in Yorkshire the Scotts name is becoming synonymous with environmental destruction and corporate arrogance. It doesn't have to be this way, Scotts can be socially and environmentally responsible if it wants. But that would mean ending the destruction of the UK's peatlands and investing in development of growing media made from green alternatives to peat."

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust