In 1998, Rainforest Relief worked to stop the use of rainforest woods by Long Beach, NY to renovate their coastal boardwalk. The city had been told good things about ipê and had used it for a small boardwalk on the bay side of town. But the coastal boardwalk is over two miles long.

Rainforest Relief had rebutted industry information in a 13-page letter, after which, town officials had elected not to use ipê.





The Long Beach, NY boardwalk in 1911


However, without an ordinance, we were not confident that future administrations could be persuaded to use rainforest wood again.

A year later, we were contacted by two high school students from Long Beach looking to volunteer. We suggested they work on an ordinance in their town.

Within two months, with help from Rainforest Relief, these two young women convinced the Long Beach Council to pass an ordinance to never use tropical hardwoods for boardwalk construction or anything else.

Read the New York Times article by Allan Richter about the passage of the ordinance. Or, you can download the artcile as a PDF here.