TAKE ACTION! Ocean City, New Jersey is a seaside resort that has a 2.5 mile wooden boardwalk fronting the Atlantic Ocean… Citizens are campaigning to stop the city from using FSC certified ipê timbers for its current one block boardwalk re-construction project and for any future re-decking projects… In 1996, when Ocean City announced a plan to re-deck the entire boardwalk with ipê, a grassroots group formed to oppose the use of rainforest wood. After 22 months of successful campaigning the City Council adopted a Resolution in May 1997 which stated that they “…will no longer purchase tropical rain forest hardwood for the boardwalk in Ocean City”… Fast forward ten years to January 2007 and the issue of using ipê industrially harvested from ancient rainforests rears its ugly head again. But this time, the city presents ipê as an environmentally responsible choice as long as it is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. While the evidence is mounting worldwide regarding major problems with the FSC’s certification of ancient forest logging as “responsible” while implying environmental sustainability, the city uses the endorsement that major environmental organizations give to FSC certified products as justification for using ipê… Citizens have repeatedly requested a public forum to discuss the failures of FSC certification and the insufficiencies of the cityÂ’s materials analysis, but their requests have been ignored… Based upon false and misleading information from major environmental groups, the City of Ocean City is to purchase ancient rainforest wood in the name of environmental responsibility. In order to protect ancient forests, the people who live there, and global climate; this purchase must be stopped and an important precedent set that industrial scaled ancient forest logging must end forever. TAKE ACTION!