Hemplobby's
Board of Directors Ed Saukkooja, Executive Director and chief lobbyist
Dave Olson, Director of communication & information
Ed Saukkooja,
originally from Pe Ell, WA., spent 26 years working
logging camps,mills, and port docks from Northern California
to the oil soaked beaches of Prince William's Sound.
Ed has an office in Olympia, WA. and travels throughout
the country consulting and speaking about hemp both
in his role as a founding director of the the Hemp Industries
Association (the industry's largest and oldest trade
organization) or as Proprietor of Walville Wally's Hemp
EXchange, a hemp product distributorship named after
the abandon sawmill near Pe Ell, where his grandfather
worked in the 1920's. More on Ed below.
Dave Olson
is an Olympia-based entrepreneur and writer. After growing
up in British Columbia, Dave traveled and worked in
Europe, Japan and the South Pacific as an educator,
artist and farmer. He is a partner in an Internet service
provider as well as offering consulting services.
Publications include both creative and research work,
notably "Hemp Culture in Japan" in several periodicals
and books. Dave also serves on the board of directors
of the Washington State Internet Lobby, and co-curator
of Taima.org - a
site about Cannabis in Japan. He wrote produced a multimedia
documentary film called "the
HempenRoad" adn edited/compiled/wrote Hemplobby's
Practical Guide to Cannabis. Read more about Dave,
including myriad creative and expository articles, resumes
and galleries at www.uncleweed.net.
Biography of
Ed Saukkooja, Hemplobby Executive Director
Standing on the site of the abandoned
Walville Sawmill, his company's name-sake, where his
grandfather worked in the 1920s, Ed reflects on his
past, and the future for his grandchildren.
Raised on the head-waters of the Chehalis
River, in the heart of the Willapa Hills, southwest
Washington State. Timber had been king for over a century,
and some thought they could never cut it all.
After graduating High School in the early
60's, it was natural for him to seek employment in the
forest products industry. Ed acknowledges, timber concerns
have made great ecological advances in the past 35 years,
and for that he is grateful, but more needs to be done.
After spending 26 years working logging
camps and port docks, from Northern CA., to the Exxon
soaked beaches of Prince William's Sound, AK., he understands
how delicate mother earth really is, and how destructive
clear-cut logging and fossil fuels are to the environment.
Since becoming a hemp activist in 1990,
Ed has founded AHA (Americans for Hemp Awareness) a
grass-roots organization, helping to dispel myths and
untruths surrounding marijuana and industrial hemp.
In 1993, "walville wally's HEMP
EXchange" became the first retail hemp store in SW Washington.
Wanting to contacted a wider market than offered by
retailing in Pe Ell, WA., the HEMP EXPRESS Van was born.
A converted bread truck, with V8 power, and a sleeper,
Ed traveled the west educating the curious, while wholesaling
the latest in hemp fashion and accessories.
In 1994, Ed helped found the Hemp Industries
Association, and served on the board of directors. The
annual HIA conventions have gained International recognition
as a "gathering of pioneers".
When not in the drivers seat of the HEMP
EXPRESS VAN, he is on the phone and Internet, conducting
the business of building the HEMP industry. His objective
is to have local farmers produce seed and fiber for
local industry.
"I want more for my granddaughter.
I want cleaner air and water for her. I want less flooding
in the valleys and fewer land slides in the hills. Stop
clearcutting and exporting timber. The days of cheap
chlorine bleached paper from our Northwest Forests are
over. Most of all, I want the American citizens to know
the truth surrounding the hemp issues. We have made
great advancement in the past year, and armed with the
truth, our movement can not fail."
Ed has a realistic understanding of obstacles
in our path with a common sense approach to accomplish
the goals at hand. Ed Saukkooja is available for
consulting and speaking on hemp and other ecological
issues.
Hemplobby Contact
P.O. Box 267
Pe Ell, WA. 98572
Phone: 800-963-4367
E.mail: ed (at) hemplobby.org - No Spam
