Jersey Town to Use Rainforest Wood on Boardwalk

AVON, N.J. — Environmental groups say they’ll launch a boycott drive against a Jersey shore town that refuses to back off its plan to use tropical rainforest wood to rebuild a boardwalk destroyed by Superstorm Sandy.

The groups calculate that 766 acres of old-growth tropical rainforest needed to be cut down to provide materials to rebuild just one small storm-damaged boardwalk at the Jersey shore, and they’re promising a tourist season boycott if the town goes through with its plan.

Activists on Monday called on the small shore town of Avon to use something other than ipe (pronounced EE’-pay) to rebuild the boardwalk destroyed by the October storm but were rejected.