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If A Tree Falls: The Earth Liberation Front

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'If You Build It We Will Burn It':
The Earth Liberation Front of the United States
In the documentary If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Daniel McGowan poses the question: “When you're screaming at the top of your lungs and no one hears you...what are you supposed to do?” (Cullman and Curry 2011). It is this kind of sentiment that has led radical environmental activists to forego mainstream forms of protest and commit what the federal government calls acts of “eco-terrorism” (US Congress 2005). Those that engage in arson, property damage and “monkey wrenching” (Foreman and Haywood 1987) do so under the moniker of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). In the words of former ELF spokesperson Leslie James Pickering, “[conventional …show more content…

tree spiking, placing sugar in gas tanks of construction vehicles, springing fur traps, etc (1987). In addition to arson, all of the aforementioned actions were “utilized by the modern ELF”, causing many to refer to the ELF as eco-terrorists committing “eco-tage” (Loadenthal 2013, Parson 2007). In the wake of several ELF actions, the United States government came to define eco-terrorism as “the use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property...for environmental-political reasons” and found individuals affiliated with the ELF to be the primary perpetrators of eco-terrorism (Federal Bureau of Investigations 2002). Prior to the prevalent usage of “eco-terrorism”, monkeywrenching was already in full practice and later provided the logistical framework for ELF eco-tage after a rift arose in the early 1990's within the radical environmental community (Cullman and Curry 2011). Members that believed direct action and “economic sabotage to stop the exploitation and destruction of the natural environment” were the only means of causing change started to distance themselves from those desiring a more conventional form of action via signs and rallies, thus creating a domestic …show more content…

- Earth Liberation Front
It was after the destruction of the Vail Ski Resort that the attention of the world was truly captured, leading people to question who exactly the ELF was and what their goals were. Opinions varied as statements like “this action is just a warning” and “we will be back” read like eco-defense to some but like eco-terrorism to others.
Though the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise co-founder Ron Arnold claims to have coined the term “eco-terrorism” in 1982, the events of September 11, 2001 changed the severity of the word (Joosse 2012). In 2005, the U.S. Congress stated that the ELF was “the [top] domestic terror concern over the likes of white supremacists, militias, and anti-abortion groups” and that their operations were similar to Al Qaeda (2005). In response to the ELF actions, agencies like the FBI, Eugene Police Department and the US Forest Service pooled resources and created Operation Backfire for the purpose of convicting those involved in ELF operations (Deshpande and Ernst 2012). Primarily through the aid of informants, Operation Backfire succeeded at apprehending and convicting over twenty persons (2012). Many received “terrorism enhancements” that led to longer sentences and mandated incarceration at Communication Management Unit prisons, which are designed to heavily restrict the communication access of domestic terrorists (Cullman and Curry

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