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Earth First! is a
radical Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...
environmental advocacy group that originated in the
Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, ...
. It was founded in 1980 by
Dave Foreman William David Foreman (October 18, 1946 – September 19, 2022) was an American environmentalist and author, he was a co-founder of Earth First! and a prominent member of the radical environmentalism movement. Early life and education William ...
,
Mike Roselle Mike Roselle (born 1954) is an American environmental activist and author who is a prominent member of the radical environmentalism movement. Roselle is one of the co-founders of the radical environmental organization Earth First!, as well as of Ra ...
, Howie Wolke, Bart Koehler, and Ron Kezar. Today there are Earth First! groups around the world including ones in Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
, Italy,
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Neth ...
,
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...
,
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country ...
, the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
,
Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to th ...
,
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
, the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Nor ...
, and the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
. Inspired by several environmental writings, including
Rachel Carson Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservation movement, conservationist whose influential book ''Silent Spring'' (1962) and other writings are credited with advancing the ...
's ''
Silent Spring ''Silent Spring'' is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading d ...
'',
Aldo Leopold Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American writer, philosopher, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his ...
's
land ethic A land ethic is a philosophy or theoretical framework about how, ethically, humans should regard the land. The term was coined by Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) in his ''A Sand County Almanac'' (1949), a classic text of the environmental movement. Th ...
, and
Edward Abbey Edward Paul Abbey (January 29, 1927 – March 14, 1989) was an Americans, American author, essayist, and anarchist, environmental activist noted for his advocacy of environmentalism, environmental issues and criticism of public land policies. His ...
's ''
The Monkey Wrench Gang ''The Monkey Wrench Gang'' is a novel written by American author Edward Abbey (1927–1989), published in 1975. Abbey's most famous work of fiction, the novel concerns the use of sabotage to protest environmentally damaging activities in the ...
'', a small group of environmental activists composed of
Dave Foreman William David Foreman (October 18, 1946 – September 19, 2022) was an American environmentalist and author, he was a co-founder of Earth First! and a prominent member of the radical environmentalism movement. Early life and education William ...
, ex-
Yippie The Youth International Party (YIP), whose members were commonly called Yippies, was an American youth-oriented radical and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the late 1960s. It was founded on De ...
Mike Roselle Mike Roselle (born 1954) is an American environmental activist and author who is a prominent member of the radical environmentalism movement. Roselle is one of the co-founders of the radical environmental organization Earth First!, as well as of Ra ...
, Wyoming Wilderness Society representatives Bart Koehler and Howie Wolke, and
Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's l ...
employee Ron Kezar, united to form Earth First!. While traveling in Foreman's VW bus from the
El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve ( es, Reserva de la Biosfera El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar) is a biosphere reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site managed by the federal government of Mexico, specifically by Secreta ...
in northern Mexico to
Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
, the group pledged, "No compromise in defense of Mother Earth!". The co-founders of the group were called to action during the second " Roadless Area Review and Evaluation" (RARE II) by the
U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...
, which they considered a sell-out by mainstream environmental advocates. The activists envisioned a revolutionary movement, with the goal to set aside multi-million-acre ecological preserves all across the United States. Their ideas drew upon the concepts of conservation biology, which had been developing for over twenty years by notable scientists like
E. O. Wilson Edward Osborne Wilson (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, entomologist and writer. According to David Attenborough, Wilson was the world's leading expert in his specialty of myrmecology, the study of a ...
; however, mainstream environmental groups were slow to embrace the new science. These events and ideologies coalesced after a grueling hike, as the men were headed toward Albuquerque. After "Foreman called out 'Earth First!', Roselle drew a clenched fist logo, passed it up to the front of the van, and there was Earth First!".Wolke, Howie,
Earth First! A Founder’s Story
Lowbagger.org


Early years, from 1980–1989

Earth First! was founded on April 4, 1980, by
Dave Foreman William David Foreman (October 18, 1946 – September 19, 2022) was an American environmentalist and author, he was a co-founder of Earth First! and a prominent member of the radical environmentalism movement. Early life and education William ...
,
Mike Roselle Mike Roselle (born 1954) is an American environmental activist and author who is a prominent member of the radical environmentalism movement. Roselle is one of the co-founders of the radical environmental organization Earth First!, as well as of Ra ...
, Howie Wolke, Bart Koehler, and Ron Kezar. During the group's early years (1980–1986), Earth First! mixed publicity stunts (such as rolling a plastic "crack" down
Glen Canyon Dam Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, United States, near the town of Page. The high dam was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) from 1956 to 1966 and forms Lake Powell, one of t ...
) with far-reaching
wilderness Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...
proposals that reportedly surpassed the actions that mainstream environmental groups were willing to take (relying on conservation biology research from a biocentric perspective). The group's proposals were published in a periodical, ''Earth First! The Radical Environmental Journal'', informally known as the ''Earth First! Journal''.
Edward Abbey Edward Paul Abbey (January 29, 1927 – March 14, 1989) was an Americans, American author, essayist, and anarchist, environmental activist noted for his advocacy of environmentalism, environmental issues and criticism of public land policies. His ...
often spoke at early gatherings, and his inspirational writings led him to be revered by the early movement. An annual gathering of the group was known as the Round River Rendezvous, with the name taken from an
Ojibwa The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
myth about a continuous river of life flowing into and out of itself and sustaining all relations. The rendezvous is a celebration with art and music, as well as an activist conference with workshops and recounts of past actions. Another project led by the organization at this time was the creation of ''Earth First! Foundation'', a tax-deductible fund which was established to provide financial support for research, advocacy and education by Earth First! activists. The fund was later renamed the Fund for Wild Nature in 1991. In the spring of 1985, a nationwide call to action against the logging company
Willamette Industries Willamette Industries, Inc. was a Fortune 500 forest products company based in Portland, Oregon, United States.Willamette National Forest The Willamette National Forest is a National Forest located in the central portion of the Cascade Range of the U.S. state of Oregon. It comprises . Over 380,000 acres (694 mi2, 1,540 km2) are designated wilderness which include seven ...
of Western
Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. ...
. After finding road blockades (carried out by Corvallis-based Cathedral Forest Action Group) were not an efficient form of protection against logging,
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to it ...
er Ron Huber and Washingtonian Mike Jakubal devised
tree sitting Tree sitting is a form of environmentalist civil disobedience in which a protester sits in a tree, usually on a small platform built for the purpose, to protect it from being cut down (speculating that loggers will not endanger human lives by cutt ...
as a more effective
civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Henc ...
alternative. On May 23, 1985, Mike Jakubal led the first Earth First! tree sit. When
U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...
law enforcement official Steve Slagowski arrived,
Mike Roselle Mike Roselle (born 1954) is an American environmental activist and author who is a prominent member of the radical environmentalism movement. Roselle is one of the co-founders of the radical environmental organization Earth First!, as well as of Ra ...
, Ron Huber, and others were arrested for sitting at the base of the tree in support. The first "tree-sitting" lasted less than a day—Jakubal came down in the evening to look over the remains of the forest that had been cut down around him, and was arrested by a hidden Forest Service officer—but the tree-sitting concept was deemed sound by Earth First! members. Huber, Jakubal, and Roselle demonstrated the concept at the June 14 Washington EF Rendezvous; on June 23, a convoy of activists arrived at Willamette National Forest and set up tree platforms in "Squaw/Three timbersale", a location the group thought was threatened with imminent destruction. While at one point, up to a dozen trees were occupied, on July 10 a clash took down all the trees with platforms except for Ron Huber's after the other sitters had left for an overnight meeting elsewhere. Huber remained at his tree, dubbed
Yggdrasil Yggdrasil (from Old Norse ), in Norse cosmology, is an immense and central sacred tree. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds. Yggdrasil is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'' compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional s ...
, until July 20 when two Linn County
sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transl ...
's deputies were lifted in a crane box and wrestled him from the tree.


Direct action

After 1987, Earth First! became primarily associated with
direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...
to prevent
logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...
, building of
dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...
s, and other forms of
development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped *Photographi ...
which may cause destruction of
wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted fo ...
habitats In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
or the despoliation of wild places. The change in direction attracted many new members to Earth First!, some of whom came from a
leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soc ...
or
anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...
political background or were involved in the
counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
. Dave Foreman has suggested that this led to the introduction of activities such as a "
puke Vomiting (also known as emesis and throwing up) is the involuntary, forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Vomiting can be the result of ailments like food poisoning, gastroenterit ...
-in" at a shopping mall, a
flag burning Flag desecration is the desecration of a flag, violation of flag protocol, or various acts that intentionally destroy, damage, or mutilate a flag in public. In the case of a national flag, such action is often intended to make a political point ...
, the heckling of Edward Abbey at the 1987 Earth First! rendezvous, and back-and-forth debates in the ''Earth First! Journal'' on topics such as anarchism, with which Foreman and other Earth First! members did not wish to be associated. Most of the group's older members, including Dave Foreman, Howie Wolke, Bart Koehler, Christopher Manes, George Wuerthner, and ''Earth First! Journal'' editor John Davis, became increasingly uncomfortable with this new direction. This tension reportedly led several of the founders to sever their ties to Earth First! in 1990. Many of them went on to launch the magazine, '' Wild Earth'', as well as the environmental group, the Wildlands Project. On the other hand, Roselle, along with activists such as
Judi Bari Judith Beatrice Bari (1949–1997) was an American environmentalist, feminist, and labor leader, primarily active in Northern California after moving to the state in the mid-1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was the principal organizer of Ea ...
, welcomed the new direct-action tactics and leftist direction of Earth First!. Starting in the mid-1980s, Earth First! increasingly promoted and identified with "
deep ecology Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that promotes the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, and the restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with such ideas. Deep ecol ...
", a philosophy put forth by
Arne Næss Arne Dekke Eide Næss (; 27 January 1912 – 12 January 2009) was a Norwegian philosopher who coined the term " deep ecology", an important intellectual and inspirational figure within the environmental movement of the late twentieth centur ...
, Bill Devall, and George Sessions, which holds that all forms of life on Earth have equal value in and of themselves, without regard for their utility to
human being Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
s.


Earth First!, from 1990–present

Since 1990, action within the Earth First! movement has become increasingly influenced by
anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...
political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...
. This change brought a rotation of the primary media organ in differing regions,, an aversion to organized leadership or administrative structure, and a new trend of identifying Earth First! as a mainstream movement rather than an organization. In 1992, Earth First!'s push toward the mainstream movement led to the creation of an offshoot group called
Earth Liberation Front The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), also known as "Elves" or "The Elves", is the collective name for Wiktionary:Autonomy, autonomous individuals or covert cells who, according to the Earth Liberation Front Press Office, ELF Press Office, use "econom ...
. The Earth Liberation Front was formally introduced during the 1992 Earth First! Round River Rendezvous, where young activists debated the effectiveness of civil disobedience activism tactics in light of the ever-increasing destruction of the planet by human activity. Elders of the Earth First! movement gave their blessing to this newly formed strike team known as ELF. ELF became the extremists of the environmental movement, just as the Earth First! movement itself had been when it was created a decade earlier. Earth First! protests commonly involved occupations of forested timber sale areas and other threatened natural areas. In these protests, dozens of people physically locked their bodies to trees, bulldozers, and desks using specially created lock boxes (metal tubes reinforced with rebar) through which protesters threaded their arms, or using bicycle U-locks in order to lock their necks to other objects.


HeadWaters

The HeadWaters campaign in Northern California aims to protect the last old-growth redwood forests, Headwaters Grove (now known as
Headwaters Forest Reserve The Headwaters Forest Reserve is a group of old growth coast redwood (''Sequoia sempervirens'') groves in the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion near Humboldt Bay of the U.S. state of California. Comprising about , it is managed by t ...
) 3,000-acres of forest from logging by the
Pacific Lumber Company The Pacific Lumber Company, officially abbreviated PALCO, and also commonly known as PL, was one of California's major logging and sawmill operations, located 28 miles (45 km) south of Eureka and 244 miles (393 km) north of San Francisc ...
.
Charles Hurwitz Charles Edwin Hurwitz (born 1940) is an American businessman and financier known for his role in the 1980s savings and loan crisis, and his takeover of Pacific Lumber Company, a logging company active in Humboldt County, California. His other hol ...
and his company Maxxam, Inc. purchased Pacific Lumber Company in 1985, and planned to liquidate its assets including these
old-growth forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...
s. In 1997, as part of the ongoing HeadWaters Redwoods protests, activists locked themselves to a redwood stump which was carried into California Congressman
Frank Riggs Frank Duncan Riggs (born September 5, 1950) is an American army veteran, former law enforcement officer, charter school executive, and politician from the states of California and Arizona. Early life Frank Riggs was born in Louisville, Kentuck ...
' office in
Eureka Eureka (often abbreviated as E!, or Σ!) is an intergovernmental organisation for research and development funding and coordination. Eureka is an open platform for international cooperation in innovation. Organisations and companies applying th ...
. HeadWaters was an ongoing protest lasting over a decade, and ending in 2009. The 1990s lawsuit, Headwaters Forest Defense vs. Humboldt County, charged that police officers were using excessive force, including chemical weapons. The first acknowledged death of an Earth First! activist occurred on September 18, 1998, in Northern California's Redwood forests. Earth First! activist David Nathan "Gypsy" Chain attempted to protect the forest by moving around inside the active logging site, thereby creating unsafe conditions for timber harvest. Normally, this would have resulted in the interruption of logging, but a large Redwood, thought to be over 300 years old, was cut down by a Pacific Lumber logger and fell upon Chain, who died instantly.


Cove-Mallard Timber

Between 1992 and 1998 took place the largest timber sale in
United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...
history, the Cove-Mallard timber sale of 6,000 acres in
Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...
near the Nez Perce National Forest. The group of EarthFirst activists focused on this area were called the "Cove-Mallard Coalition". With the aid of a nearby landowner, a former land developer turned activist, Earth First! occupied the forest. As a result, Earth First! succeeded in saving most of the threatened wilderness area. Over 350 people from 12 countries were arrested and the project was reduced from its initial plan of 200 clear-cuts and the construction of seven new roads, to 37 clear-cuts and two new roads. In June 1993, Earth First! halted the construction of the Noble Road by erecting elaborate multi-layered barricades, which included U.S. Forest Service vehicles. These barricades were constructed in one night, during which activists traveled 17 miles through the mountains dodging law enforcement patrols who had been informed of the planned demonstration. The first tripod lockdowns occurred at this incident, which involved three 30 foot logs, tied together and placed upright, with an activist tied to a platform between them 20 feet in the air. The tripod was placed over trenches in which four activists were buried in quick-drying cement. Two additional activists used U-locks to lock their necks to the front axles of responding vehicles. U.S. Forest Service shot at activists and raided the land with a SWAT team armed with M-16s. 27 activists were arrested. William "Avalon" Rodgers, a member of the Earth Liberation Front, who alongside the rest of his ELF group was also arrested and were serving life sentences in federal prison for crimes that involved property damage. Rodgers was a long term Earth First activist, and one of the occupation activists of Free Cascadia/Warner Creek Oregon and the Cove/Mallard Idaho protests for years and one of four who constantly camped out in snow-caves monitoring the only logging of Noble Road in the winter of January to March 1995 in 12-foot deep snow and sub-zero temps.


Free Cascadia

During Free Cascadia, a mass occupation organized by Earth First! at the Warner Creek timber sale in Oregon, 50-plus activists continuously occupied the burnt forested mountains of Oregon for a year in 1994-1995. They endured bad weather and law enforcement raids. Their barricades which were dug in reinforced trenches, forts with watchtowers, and tree-sits enabled a constant occupation of the land while lawsuits and political actions locally and in Washington D.C., ultimately saved the land. Warner Creek is often seen an example of how the Earth First movement was successful, though most Earth First occupations of timber sales, failed. In the summer of 1995, environmental activists attempted to occupy the old-growth timber sale area of Sugarloaf Mountain in Southern Oregon. The Sugarloaf Mountain had been in legal battles for over a decade when the "Rider from Hell" was added in committee to the congressional Crime Bill of 1994, which mandated the logging of thousands of acres of old-growth forest. The United States Forest Service declared an exclusionary zone of 30 square miles in southern Oregon and arrested anyone in the area, including a local woman walking her dog. Over 100 federal agents, supported by helicopters and the elite US Army Ranger-trained law enforcement squad known as "Camo-Feddies," arrested hundreds of activists. The environmental activists engaged at all levels of protest with numerous public and illegal demonstrations by Earth First, protests at government offices locally and in Washington D.C., tree-sits in active logging zones, and even an attempted helicopter pad lock-down to immobilize logging helicopters. One tree from Sugarloaf timber sale, which was a four day long tree-sit by a local father and son Earth First team, required 9 log trucks to carry it out in sections. This tree was estimated to be over 400 years old and took twenty-seven minutes to cut down using a 7-foot chainsaw. Earth First! responded by immediately occupying the nearby timber sale known as China Left in early October 1995 to defend the old-growth forest and the last wild salmon spawning grounds in Oregon. EF activists used dragon lock-boxes on both ends of the valley's only road to protect the area. A female Earth First! activist known as "Ocean" held the road for a day as police attempted to remove this human-and-cement blockade, allowing Earth First! to dig in farther down the valley. This was the start of two-year-long occupation protest, during which a pickup truck was turned into a lock box to block the only bridge to the valley.


Judi Bari car bombing

In 1990, a
bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...
exploded in the car of Earth First! activist
Judi Bari Judith Beatrice Bari (1949–1997) was an American environmentalist, feminist, and labor leader, primarily active in Northern California after moving to the state in the mid-1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was the principal organizer of Ea ...
, injuring Bari and fellow activist
Darryl Cherney Darryl Cherney (born 1956) is an American musician and environmental activist. He is a member of the Earth First! environmental movement. Born and raised in New York City, he lives in Humboldt County, California. Cherney has produced five albu ...
. Bari and Cherney were arrested due to suspicions by the police and
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
that they had been transporting a bomb that had accidentally exploded. Bari contended that extremists opposed to her pro-environmental actions had placed the bomb in her car in order to kill her. The case against them was eventually dropped due to lack of evidence. Bari died of cancer in 1997, but her federal lawsuit against the FBI and
Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...
police resulted in a 2002 jury verdict awarding her estate and Darryl Cherney a total of $4.4 million.http://www.law.com/regionals/ca/stories/020612b.shtml FBI, Oakland handed defeat in Bari lawsuit As a result of the civil case, it was determined that eighty percent of the damages were for violation of their
First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
rights by the FBI and police. A documentary movie about the court case, entitled ''The Forest for the Trees'', was released in 2006. It was directed by Bernadine Mellis, whose father is one of the lawyers featured in the documentary. The documentary '' Who Bombed Judi Bari?'', directed by Mary Liz Thomson, was released in 2012. The filmmakers are offering a $50,000 reward for information leading the arrest of the bomber. On March 21, 2011, a U.S. federal judge in California ordered the FBI to preserve evidence related to the car bombing. The FBI was planning to destroy all evidence in the case. The bombing remains unsolved.


Protest and ecodefense

Most activists of Earth First! have previously participated in more moderate forms of environmental and political activism, including protest marches and writing letters to politicians. 'Fawn", an Earth First!er in the United States, grew up as a Republican, in a middle-class family. Most members of Earth First! identify as
decentralized Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group. Conce ...
, locally informed activists whose ideas stem from communitarian ethics. One of the early critics of Earth First!'s change in tactics later accused the FBI of deliberately introducing the concept of
Non-Violence Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...
to the group. In various parts of the United States, individual citizens and small groups form the base for grassroots political actions. These may take the form of legal actions, including
protest A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...
s, timber sale appeals, and educational campaigns or
civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Henc ...
, including
tree sitting Tree sitting is a form of environmentalist civil disobedience in which a protester sits in a tree, usually on a small platform built for the purpose, to protect it from being cut down (speculating that loggers will not endanger human lives by cutt ...
,
road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...
blockades, and
sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
(also called "
ecotage Ecotage ( ) is sabotage carried out for environmental reasons. Cases All damage figures below are in United States dollars. Some well-known acts of ecotage have included: *Circa 1969–1985; ecological activist James F. Phillips, operating ...
" by some Earth First! members, who claim it is a form of ecodefense). Often, disruptive direct action is used primarily as a stalling tactic in an attempt to prevent possible environmental destruction while Earth First!
lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil act ...
s try to secure long-term victories. Reported tactics include road blockades, activists locking themselves to heavy equipment, tree-sitting, and sabotage of machinery. Earth First! was known for providing information in the ''Earth First! Journal'' on the practice of tree-spiking and
monkeywrenching Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
(or ecotage), although there is no evidence that Earth First! was involved in related activity. In 1990,
Judi Bari Judith Beatrice Bari (1949–1997) was an American environmentalist, feminist, and labor leader, primarily active in Northern California after moving to the state in the mid-1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was the principal organizer of Ea ...
convinced Earth First! in the
Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers inc ...
and Southern
Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. ...
region to renounce the practice of tree-spiking, calling them counterproductive to an effort to form a coalition with workers and small logging businesses to defeat large-scale corporate logging in Northern California. Police used non-lethal weapons and tactics against Earth First! protesters including pepper spray, pain compliance holds, police dogs, and the threat of guns in attempts to coerce the protesters to abandon their lock downs.


Earth First! United Kingdom

The Earth First! movement in the United Kingdom started in 1990, when a group in
Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
,
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English C ...
organised an action at
Dungeness nuclear power station The Dungeness nuclear power stations are a pair of non-operational nuclear power stations located on the Dungeness headland in the south of Kent, England. Dungeness A is a legacy Magnox power station consisting of two 250 MWe reactors which ...
in
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces the ...
. It grew rapidly, and many groups formed, with or without the EF! name, over the next years. The first major Earth First! action happened in December 1991 at
Port of Tilbury The Port of Tilbury is a port on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the principal port for London, as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facilities for contai ...
and focused around the importation of tropical hardwood. The second major action, the ''Merseyside Dock Action'', attracted between 200–600 people who occupied
Liverpool docks The Port of Liverpool is the enclosed dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Birkenhead Docks between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the west side of the ...
for two days. This action coincided with the Earth First! roadshow, in which a group of UK & US Earth First!ers toured the country. Other early campaigns also focused on timber-yards, most notably the Timbmet yard in Oxford. There are now various regional Earth First! groups, the EF! Action Update has been joined by the EF! Action Reports website and a yearly Earth First! national gathering. At the first gathering in Sussex the debate focused on the use of criminal damage as a protest technique. Earth First! decided to neither 'condemn nor condone' criminal damage, instead it focused more on non-violent direct action techniques. Some people at the gathering coined the term
Earth Liberation Front The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), also known as "Elves" or "The Elves", is the collective name for Wiktionary:Autonomy, autonomous individuals or covert cells who, according to the Earth Liberation Front Press Office, ELF Press Office, use "econom ...
(ELF), which became a separate movement which spread back to the US. Actions involving criminal damage did happen often under cover of night and were typically done under an ELF banner and attributed to
elves An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in Norse mythology, North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He dis ...
and
pixie A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas aro ...
s, or the Earth Liberation Faeries, giving a distinctly British feel to the movement. Major growth in the direct action movement started with a concurrent focus on roads, and a protest camp at
Twyford Down Twyford Down is an area of chalk downland lying directly to the southeast of Winchester, Hampshire, England next to St. Catherine's Hill and close to the South Downs National Park. It has been settled since pre-Roman times, and has housed a ...
was started, against the M3 in Hampshire. Whilst Earth First! groups still played an essential part, other groups such as the Dongas tribe soon formed. Alongside SchNEWS, such publications as the Earth First! Action Update, and ''Do or Die'' were means of communication between the groups. The movement grew to other road protest camps including the
Newbury bypass The Newbury bypass, officially known as The Winchester-Preston Trunk Road (A34) (Newbury Bypass), is a stretch of dual carriageway road which bypasses the town of Newbury in Berkshire, England. It is located to the west of the town and forms p ...
, the A30 and the
M11 link road protest The M11 link road protest was a campaign against the construction of the M11 link road in east London in the early to mid-1990s. "A12 Hackney to M11 link road", as it was officially called, was part of a significant local road scheme to connect t ...
in London, where whole streets were
squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...
in order to slow down the construction work. Later the focus widened to other campaigns including
Reclaim the Streets Reclaim the Streets also known as RTS, are a collective with a shared ideal of community ownership of public spaces. Participants characterise the collective as a resistance movement opposed to the dominance of corporate forces in globalisatio ...
, anti-genetics campaigns, and Rising Tide. More recently, there have been groups such as Peat Alert! and
Plane Stupid Plane Stupid is a UK-focused group of environmental protesters who state their aim as wanting to see an end to airport expansion for what it sees as "unnecessary and unsustainable" flights. It is a loose association of autonomous regional gro ...
. The UK Earth First! groups differed considerably from the U.S. groups as reported in a ten-year retrospective of the Earth First! by two of the founders Jake Bowers and Jason Torrance: Seeing ecological and social justice as one and the same, in addition to organizing along anarchist lines and bringing in other radical and militant struggles, mixed with audacious actions and real radicalism spread the EF! ideal to other countries and helped morph the US movement.


Sabotage


Fairfield Snowbowl Ski Resort

Earth First! member Mark Davis was sentenced in Federal court to six years in prison for malicious destruction of property at the Fairfield Snowbowl Ski Resort near
Flagstaff, Arizona Flagstaff ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2019, the city's estimated population was 75,038. Flagstaff's combined metropolitan area has an estimated population o ...
, in concert with David Foreman, Ilse Asplund, Margaret Millett, and Mark Baker. Davis had been charged with "using a torch to cut around the base of the top pylon of the main chair lift at Snowbowl on October 25, 1988." The resort attack, sabotage at Energy Fuels' Canyon uranium mine (6 miles southeast of
Tusayan, Arizona Tusayan is a town, but was a census-designated place during the 2010 census. It is located in Coconino County, Arizona, United States. It was incorporated in 2010. A resort town near the south entrance to Grand Canyon National Park, Tusayan ...
), and attempting to cut down power-line towers leading to the
Central Arizona Project The Central Arizona Project (CAP) is a 336 mi (541 km) diversion canal in Arizona in the southern United States. The aqueduct diverts water from the Colorado River to the Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge south portion of Lake Havasu ...
aqueduct, were characterized as dress rehearsals for attacks on nuclear plants.


Telluride Ski Resort

On August 10, 1991, vandals identifying themselves as members of Earth First! forced the closing of the
Telluride Ski Resort Telluride Ski Resort is a ski resort located in Mountain Village, Colorado. The Telluride Ski Resort is located in the southwest corner of Colorado. The resort is in the northwestern San Juan Mountains, part of the Rocky Mountains, and is home ...
in
Mountain Village, Colorado Mountain Village is a home rule municipality in San Miguel County, southwestern Colorado. It is located just southwest of Telluride, Colorado in the San Juan Mountains. The elevation of the town rises above Telluride to 9,540 feet. The populati ...
using a chemical to write messages on 11 greens, such as "Earth First!", "Hayduke lives" and "Ron you pig". In relation to the incident, the '' Telluride Times Journal'' received a letter signed "Earth First" stating that the ski lift had been sabotaged with a welding gas applied to the lift cable that weakens the metal.


Aspen Pipeline Sabotage

A gas pipeline In Aspen Colorado was sabotaged turning off heat to 3,500 people on December 29, 2020. The perpetrators wrote Earth First! on the pipeline.


Filmography


Documentary films


See also

*
Conservation ethic Nature conservation is the moral philosophy and conservation movement focused on protecting species from extinction, maintaining and restoring habitats, enhancing ecosystem services, and protecting biological diversity. A range of values under ...
*
Extinction Rebellion Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk o ...
*
Green anarchism Green anarchism (or eco-anarchism"green anarchism (also called eco-anarchism)" in ''An Anarchist FAQ'' by various authors.) is an anarchist school of thought that puts a particular emphasis on ecology and environmental issues. A green anarchist ...
*
Green syndicalism Green anarchism (or eco-anarchism"green anarchism (also called eco-anarchism)" in ''An Anarchist FAQ'' by various authors.) is an anarchist school of thought that puts a particular emphasis on ecology and environmental issues. A green anarchist ...
* Hayduke *
List of environmental organizations An environmental organization is an organization coming out of the conservation or environmental movements that seeks to protect, analyse or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation from human forces. In this sense the environmen ...


References


Further reading


Books about Earth First!, the early years

* Davis, John, ed. ''The Earth First! Reader: Ten Years of Radical Environmentalism'' (1991) () * Foreman, David. ''Confessions of an Eco-Warrior'' (1991) () * Foreman, David. ''Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching'' (1985) () * Manes, Christopher. ''Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization'' (1990) () * Scarce, Rik. ''Eco-Warriors: Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement'' (2006) () * Wall, Derek. ''Earth First! and the Anti-Roads Movement: Radical Environmentalism and Comparative Social Movements '' (1999) () * Zakin, Susan. ''Coyotes and Town Dogs: Earth First! and the Environmental Movement'' (1993) () * Lee, Martha. ''Earth First!: Environmental Apocalypse'' (1995) ()


Books about Earth First!, post–1990

* EF! Publications. ''Do or Die - Voices from the Ecological Resistance'' () (ISSN 1462-5989) * Bari, Judi. ''Timber Wars'' (1994) () * Scarce, Rik. ''Eco-Warriors: Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement'' (2006) () * Wall, Derek ''Earth First and the Anti-Roads Movement'' (1999) () * Chadwick, Paul "Concrete: Think Like A Mountain" * King, Elli (Editor) ''LISTEN: The Story of the People at Taku Wakan Tipi and the Reroute of Highway 55 or The Minnehaha Free State''(2006)


Books critical of Earth First!

* Arnold, Ron. ''Ecoterror: The Violent Agenda to Save Nature'' (1997) () * Bradford, George. ''How Deep is Deep Ecology?'' (1989) () * Clausen, Barry. ''Walking on the Edge: How I Infiltrated Earth First!'' (1994) () * Coleman, Kate. ''The Secret Wars of
Judi Bari Judith Beatrice Bari (1949–1997) was an American environmentalist, feminist, and labor leader, primarily active in Northern California after moving to the state in the mid-1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was the principal organizer of Ea ...
'' (2005) ()


External links


The History and Impact of Earth First!
*
Earth First! Journal

Earth First! Newswire

Introducing Earth First!

documentary films
on ''
IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
''
Earth First! UK
{{Authority control Environmental organizations based in the United States Radical environmentalism Anti-road protest Green anarchism Direct action Environmental organizations established in 1980 1980 establishments in the United States Anti-consumerist groups