Last night, Asbury Park, NJ Councilwoman Kate Mellina, proposed that the historic boardwalk town — which gained national notoriety with Bruce Springsteen's “Born to Run” album — end their use of uncertified tropical hardwoods for boardwalk renovations.

Late in 2001, Asbury Park went out to bid for tropical hardwoods to renovate a third of the six-block-long coastal boardwalk between Convention Hall and the Paramount Theater — a well known and historic amusement area that was highly popular in the 1960sand ’70s but which underwent a major decline in the 1980s.

Rainforest Relief, along with the New Jersey chapter of Sierra Club, opposed the use of unsustainable tropical hardwoods for the renovations, which were being funded by a grant from the state of New Jersey.

A very public campaign ensued that involved many twists and turns and garnered a great deal of media coverage. It eventually ending up in court, as Rainforest Relief sued Asbury Park for failure to adhere to a New Jersey executive order mandating the use of recycled materials when state funds are used.

Even though the court case failed to stop the impending sale, in the eleventh hour, the hardwood supplier — none other than Timber Holdings of Wisconsin, the largest seller of tropical wood decking in the U.S. — made a deal with Aquatic Cellulose, a company contacted by Rainforest Relief, to purchase enough wood for the Asbury Park project. Aquatic Cellulose cuts submerged tropical trees from beneath the floodwaters of the Tucurui dam impound lake in Brazil.

However, due to unforeseen circumstances, Aquatic Cellulose was unable to deliver the submerged wood in time and so conventional uncertified tropical ip? was used for the two-block-long renovation.

Rainforest Relief estimates that, for the 100,000 board feet delivered, 1,000 acres of primary rainforests were logged. To make matters worse, 80% of timber logged in Brazil is cut illegally. At least ten indigenous groups have had members killed in conflicts with loggers.

After the tragic sale, Rainforest Relief continued to work behind the scenes in Asbury Park with a new City Council, toward ending further use of tropical hardwoods.

Six months ago, Councilwoman Mellina stated to the group that she would not allow uncertified tropical woods to be used again in Asbury Park.

Last night, Councilwoman Mellina followed through on her promise and introduced a resolution calling for an end to the use of uncertified rainforest woods for all future boardwalk renovations and repairs. The resolution passed unanimously (see attached).

With thisCouncil resolution, Asbury Park becomes the eighth waterfront town to have responded to Rainforest Relief campaigns, ending the use of unsustainable tropical hardwoods for boardwalks. Others include Long Beach, California; Long Beach and Greenport in New York, Miami Beach, and in New Jersey, Ocean City, Wildwood and Ventnor.

These decisions have curtailed the impending or proposed use of over 11 million board feet of unsustainable tropical wood.

Rainforest Relief has now started to work proactively, targeting waterfront towns across the U.S., waterfront designers, landscape architects and others that typically design and specify tropical hardwoods for boardwalks, piers, pilings, docks, marinas and benches.

For more information or to initiate a resolution in your city or town, call or email Rainforest Relief at 718/398-3760, relief@igc.org.

The wave of illegal loggers is eliminating rainforests around the world, with much of the resulting wood ending up in U.S. waterfront redevelopment projects. As it goes, this wave is eliminating over 300 species a day — lost forever to the greatest Mass Extinction to have occurred on Earth for 65 million years.

We need a wave of our own to counter this destruction. Let’s work together to pass a resolution in your town.