Even after repeated calls from Rainforest Relief offering to help them secure alternatives, the Friends of the High Line have gone ahead and used massive amounts of ipê logged from the Amazon rainforests of Brazil and Peru to construct decking, bleacher seating, chaise lounges and benches along the completed sections of this most recent public park.

There are no structural reasons why Friends have used ipê. While ipê is considered extremely durable, other domestic woods will last longer (see below). Recycled plastic lumber will last 5 times longer than ipê.

The use of ipê is mostly for aesthetics. Apparently, Friends’ designers care more for their accolades than they do for the death of Earth’s most diverse ecosystems or the murder and displacement of indigenous people at the hands of illegal loggers.

The Brazilian government admits that 80% of Amazon timber exports are from illegal sources. Estimates are that 80% of logging in Peru is done illegally as well.

In Brazil, at least 10 indigenous tribes have had family murdered by illegal loggers. In Peru, the lands of voluntarily-isolated tribes are being invaded by illegal loggers.

Because ipê trees grow in densities of only one or two individual trees per acre, An estimated 28 other trees are killed just to get at one ipê tree. Roads and skidder trails bulldozed into primary forests to get at the high-value trees destroy up to 50% of the canopy of the forest. The thousands of board feet of ipê used for The High Line resulted in the destruction of hundreds of acres of Amazon rainforest.

Numerous environmentally preferable alternatives are available for outdoor applications. Recycled plastic lumber (RPL) is the most environmentally beneficial material for outdoor uses like decking, benches, bridges and other applications. This material is made from post-consumer recycled plastic (mostly milk jugs and detergent bottles). Using this material creates local jobs, reduces landfilling, sequesters carbon and spares forests from logging. RPL will likely last more than 100 years (ipê used by the NYC Parks Department on the Boardwalk in Coney Island is lasting less than 20 years).

Sustainable domestic hardwoods are also available. Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is native to the US and has spread throughout the Northeast (where it is considered an “invasive”. Traditionally used for fenceposts, shipbuilding, wagon wheel hubs and telegraph poles, black locust fell out of favor when steel, plastic and tropical hardwoods became more available and treated woods became a cheap alternative. But Europeans brought black locust to Europe where, called “Robinia” (after the genus name) it is steamed to facilitate easier fabrication and is favored for fencing and considered an amazingly durable flooring. In fact, the largest plantations of Robinia are in South Korea. In these countries, black locust is known to last longer than tropical hardwoods.

Yet here, in the US, we have forgotten about our “own” extremely durable hardwoods. White oak, one of the most common commercial hardwoods in the US is considered “very durable” for outdoor applications. White oak (Quercus alba) will likely last 40 years in the outdoors, as attested to by the fact that it is still favored by some companies manufacturing outdoor furniture.

Using domestic hardwoods will also protect local jobs. Over 800 small sawmills in the US have gone under in the last decade due to cheap (often illegally logged) imports from China and Brazil.

Rainforest Relief was contacted by the design team working on The High Line, seeking information about black locust. Yet, they ignored this material in favor of the more popular ipê.

Many architects still believe, erroneously, that ipê is rated Class A for fire ignition and flame spread. This is not true. The US Forest Service’s Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) has never tested ipê for fire rating. Conversations between Rainforest Relief and the scientists at this research facility revealed that the Class-A rating that was touted by importers and resellers was unproven. When repeatedly asked for documentation of independent testing, the importers never provided it to the FPL. Indeed, the FPL suggested to people asking for confirmation of the fire rating that they do their own testing. Once they did, they found that ipê has a Class B rating. As it turns out, importers and resellers were simply making this up so as to sell more wood (NYC law only allows for a small portion of a rooftop to be decked with material that is not rated Class A for fire, whereas one can deck the entire roof with a Class-A-rated material, such as concrete or steel). This myth has now permeated the architectural community and architects continue to specify ipê, considering it the "steel" of woods. Importers and resellers continue to sell ipê as Class A fire-rated.

Ipê has become so popular in the US for decking (and railings, flooring, marinas, etc.) that it is now the single largest wood export from Brazil, having surpassed mahogany in 2002. At current rates of logging, we estimate that ipê will last only another 8 years. Indeed, prices have begun to rise dramatically due to decreased availability. The rainforests are falling ever-faster and species are being driven to extinction at a cataclysmic rate.

The indigenous people of the Amazon and the thousands of endangered species living there need your help to compel The High Line to STOP using destructive rainforest wood.

It’s not too late for Friends of the High Line to act responsibly. They have sent a global message that says it’s okay to ignore where your materials originate — or the destruction caused to obtain them.

You can help compel them to change that message to one of protecting rainforests and battling climate change. They can do this by using other alternative materials — like recycled plastic lumber or sustainable domestic hardwoods — for the final two sections of the High Line. As well, they must publicly announce their shift and the reasons for it. Rainforest Relief is calling on Friends to immediately end their purchase of ipê or other tropical forest hardwoods, announce their shift, and the reasons for it, to the architecture and design communities and in permanent signs on The High Line.

Please contact the Friends of the High Line and tell them to do the right thing.

212/206-9922; info@thehighline.org

529 West 20th Street, Suite 8W
New York, NY 10011

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