Earth First! Eco-Terrorism?

photo courtesy Pacific Lumber

It has been more than a month since the terrorist attacks against the United States. Because of the tragedies of September 11, the mysterious cases of cutaneous anthrax and general uncertainty, many Americans are in fear of future terrorist attacks from foreign enemies. Others say we should not discount the many potential terrorists groups located in the United States from targeting their own land. But which groups are likely to target us? Could it be by members of such organizations as the Christian Identity, the Arian Nation, the Ku Klux Klan or some other extreme faction? And then there is a segment of “terrorists” referred to as “Eco-terrorists.”

On a local front, the group Earth First! has been labeled by some as terrorists – Eco-terrorists to be exact .This is nothing new to Earth First! members, but they reject such a label.

“Earth First! is an anti-terrorist group,” said Darryl Cherney, an Earth First! activist based in Southern Humboldt County. “We believe in combating terrorists in order to protect all of earth’s creatures, including man, and we condemn acts of terrorism.”

Cherney and fellow-Earth First! activist Judi Bari were actually the target of terrorist activity when a car bomb exploded with them in the car. They both survived, but not without injury or frustration. The Bay Area case is still not solved, even though there is new DNA evidence. Cherney has been active with Earth First! for more than 15 years and finds the term “Eco-terrorist” as used by law-enforcement agencies, to be very loaded.

North American researcher Barry Clausen articulates the concept of Eco-terrorism. “If environmental terrorism had not emerged, terrorism in America would have been virtually non-existent in the late 1980s. It was during the 1980s that issues concerning the environment led some radical environmental communities to turn to terrorism.”

When Earth First! began in 1980, its mission was to use a direct-action approach to protecting the earth. Its Web site professes: “We believe in using all the tools in the tool box, ranging from grassroots organizing and involvement in the legal process to civil disobedience and monkey wrenching” The term “monkey wrenching” was popularized in the infamous fictional novel by Edward Abbey, “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” written in 1975.

A man of the wilderness, Abbey is considered by many to have fathered and fostered aspects of the environmental activist movements through his cynical and often subversive books. He wrote unabashedly, speaking to what he saw as the willful destruction by corporate entities that threatened wilderness. Abbey’s characters would engage in acts ranging from lighting billboards on fire, to trashing tractors at job sites. Many “monkey wrenching” techniques were espoused for activist consumption in this landmark book that screamed vehemently at the reader for the need to preserve wild places, and this view has certainly been championed to large effect by Earth First!

Although the Earth First! mission remains the same, many of their approaches are different. Earth First! has been involved in several controversial acts since the early 1980s. Most of the actions were aimed at large corporations such as the timber industry, mining and ranching facilities. Cherney called such activities “sabotage,” not terrorism.

These activists frustrate investigators by hitting remote targets, often at night, and leaving little evidence, but charred ruins. Earth First! is by no means the only group considered to be “Eco-terrorists” by law enforcement agencies such as the FBI. One recent attack that received wide-ranging media attention took place in 1998 in Vail, Col. After the building of a ski-lift operation was complete, members of Earth First! said that the development was encroaching on a habitat for lynx. To make a direct point, a series of fires were lit around the perimeter of the ski lifts. More than $12 million in damage was done.

According to Cherney, Earth First! was never accused, on any level, of setting the fire. It was members of the Earth Liberation Front that took responsibility for the starting of the fires. But, since Earth First! was there, however, “doing above-ground activist work,” they got linked to the destructive event.

These types of actions have some Earth-Firsters proud and others confused. The group is autonomous and does not have members, but activists. They also do not have organizational by-laws or hierarchy. So how do they view “Eco- terrorism”?

One writer of the Earth First! Journal in Oregon, Rodney Coronado, disagrees with the term “Eco- terrorism”. He said that the term “Eco-terrorism” was thought up by corporations and applied to a variety of small-time pranks, such as tree sits, to prevent logging or throwing animal entrails on public officials to protest hunting.

“I personally consider myself an anti-terrorist, because everything I oppose I see as acts of terrorism,” Coronado said.” When I think of Eco-terrorists, I think of corporate executive officers in high-rise buildings.”

The official Web site suggests that the battle for conservation is not merely for keeping outdoor recreation opportunities, or even for wise management and use of natural resources, but rather a fight for life itself, a fight for the survival of earth. The Web site explains that we are losing animal species every day due to human expansion, and as a lack of serious care for the environment - things that they feel are putting the planet at great risk.

There are various ways to get a point across. Although some environmental activists believe in extreme action, like bombing an animal-testing site or making threatening phone calls to high-level corporate timber officials, this is not the belief of all environmentalists.

Julia “Butterfly” Hill offers this perspective on violence’s place in protest:” If this is the voice for the forests, it’s no wonder we’re losing them.”