Can two sides agree on different ways to save the trees? The July 2001 issue of Harper’s magazine stirred debate over this question by featuring an excerpt from Teri Birkett’s children’s book, Truax. Birkett, assistant manager at the Stuart, Va.-based Stuart Flooring mill, wrote the book to respond to Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, which portrays the lumber industry as greedy, callous and destructive. The excerpt in Harper’s, which dismissed the book as pure propaganda, generated such a buzz that Matt Walsh from the Comedy Central Television Network program The Daily Show interviewed Birkett. Birkett says Walsh kept their conversation serious by asking legitimate questions about the forest products industry, but then to create humor, her responses appeared out of context in the actual program. The Daily Show poked fun at Birkett’s assertion that, unlike the well-funded environmentalist groups, wood-based industries do not have the organized resources to defend their side of the story. That claim was followed with the narration: “Yes, with only billions in revenue to work with, mom-and-pop companies like Weyerhaeuser and International Paper have been backed into a corner.” The good-natured banter wasn’t limited to the lumber industry—just as many shots were taken at Seuss’ original Lorax.
Teri Birkett chats with Matt Walsh.
Matt Walsh observes a class listening to Truax.
