Superior Lumber Company Vice President Steve Swanson was away on vacation, in San Diego, California, when he got the 8 a.m. call on his cell phone. It was a family member, letting him know that one of their office buildings in Glendale, Oregon, had been set ablaze in the early morning of January 2. Swanson quickly hopped a plane home. By the time he returned, around 4 p.m., the office lay smoldering, almost completely destroyed.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies were called in immediately to investigate. An anonymous communiqué, released a week later, minced no words in explaining the attack: “Superior Lumber is a typical earth raper contributing to the ecological destruction of the Northwest. What happened to them should shock no one.”

The group claiming the arson, the Earth Liberation Front, is making a name for itself by setting its sights on timber companies, builders and a host of other businesses, research facilities and government agencies that the group deems a threat to the environment. The blaze at Superior Lumber caused more than $400,000 in damage. With more than $37 million in damages to date and potentially lethal methods, ELF has moved from the moral ambiguity that makes some “eco-warriors” sympathetic to the public and into the realm of terrorists.

“This year, 2001, we hope to see an escalation in tactics against capitalism and industry,” the communiqué added.

The group traces its beginnings to Earth First!, the direct-action environmental movement founded in the late 1970s as a reaction to mainstream environmental groups’ ineffectiveness. In the early 1990s, Earth First!ers made the collective decision to abandon criminal acts, opting to push their ideology through legal channels. Some members refused, and ELF was born. The group posts its “guidelines” on the web:

• To inflict economic damage on those profitting [sic] from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment.

• To reveal and educate the public on the atrocities committed against the earth and all species that populate it.

• To take all necessary precautions against harming any animal, human and non-human.

The group’s preferred means of accomplishing these goals: arson. Ancillary acts have been tree spiking, corn syrup in gas tanks, clipped hydraulic lines, glued locks and chain-sawed telephone and power poles.

“ELF’s main focus is to take the profit motive away from these corporations by causing economic loss,” says Craig Rosebraugh, the group’s above-ground media representative, but not himself a member of ELF. “They need to take into consideration what impact they’re having on the planet.”

This is not language that plays well with members of the logging and construction industry. “They are opposed to all industry and capitalism,” Swanson says, bewildered. “If you’re against industry and capitalism, you’re against every individual in the United States.”

Though capitalism and industry are the proclaimed targets (anything from McDonald’s corporate headquarters to subdivision developments), genetic-engineering research facilities and U.S. Forest Service biotech labs have been targeted as well. The group’s coup de gr‰ce came on October 19, 1998, when members set fire to three buildings and four ski lifts at the Vail, Colorado, ski lodge. It was the largest single act of ecoterrorism in U.S. history, with estimated damages in excess of $20 million.

Recently, ELF seems to be stepping up its attacks on lumber and construction industries. A luxury home in a new subdivision in Niwot, Colorado, was attacked in November, resulting in more than $500,000 in damages. In December and January, a rash of building and development targets were hit in New York: condominiums on Middle Island, a house under construction in Miller Place and three luxury homes in Mount Sinai. At the last attack, January 15, two vehicles belonging to a Long Island construction company were burned and ELF left an unsettling message spray-painted on a nearby home: “If you build it, we will burn it.”

Law enforcement officials are concerned about the arsons and believe it is only a matter of time before someone is hurt. So why has it been so difficult for law enforcement officials to apprehend and prosecute ELF members? ELF is a different kind of terrorist organization, claiming to be “leaderless resistance” with no organized hierarchical structure.

The initiation into ELF is a self-anointing baptism of fire: one becomes a member after committing an act of arson or vandalism. Anonymous e-mails detailing the attacks are sent to Rosebraugh’s home office; he contacts the media and posts information on the ELF website.

Members operate out of two- or three-person “cells,” and each cell is unknown to the others. This cell structure, a tactic refined by Chinese leader and Marxist theorist Mao Zedong, maintains the security of individual members. In the event of an arrest, an ELF member can implicate only the one or two other members with which he or she is directly involved. This structure makes infiltration of the group difficult for law enforcement officials. This sophistication is a rare commodity in the criminal world.

“Most criminals are stupid,” says Gary Perlstein, an ecoterrorism expert and chair of the Administration of Justice Department at Portland State University. “Even though [ELF members] are committing criminal acts, they aren’t behaving like criminals.”

Assistant Special Agent in Charge Phil Donegan of the FBI’s Portland office agrees, in part.

“These people certainly aren’t stupid,” Donegan says, “but they express the average criminal mentality: they think they’re going to be different; they think they won’t get caught.”

So far, few have. “Don’t get caught,” in fact, is a well-worn credo, borrowed from the eco-warrior’s bible, Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang. The group’s elusiveness is, criminally speaking, atypical behavior.

“Most criminals live in a criminal subculture and make friends and enemies who are criminals,” Perlstein says. This eventually leads to their downfall. Perlstein surmises that ELF is made up mostly of college-educated upper-middle-class young people. “They are very bright, very knowledgeable, very well read,” Perlstein says.

Why have they turned to terrorism? “It gives them a way—without taking life—to take direct action for a cause they believe in,” Perlstein says. “One of the things lacking in our lives is any sense of danger. This gives them an opportunity to do something risky.”

There have been ELF-related arrests, though only a handful. At this writing, three Long Island teens had entered pleas and a fourth had been charged for the rash of arsons, firebombings, broken windows and vandalism that occurred in late December. Seattle activist Josh Harper, who earlier refused to appear at a grand jury hearing about his knowledge of ELF or Animal Liberation Front operations, was tried for criminal contempt. Activist Elaine Close and Rosebraugh were subpoenaed to testify at the trial. Rosebraugh’s house was raided last year and his computer seized, though no incriminating evidence was found. He was raided again in April after a Eugene, Oregon, car dealership arson was linked to ELF.

Nearly ten years since ELF’s name was first associated with an act of vandalism and five years since it was officially labeled a terrorist group by the Justice Department, law enforcement officials don’t appear any closer to infiltrating the group. “There has been evidence left behind,” Donegan says. “But we’ve got to put together a rock-solid case, and that takes awhile.”

Meanwhile, the political ramifications are being felt in the environmental community, and at a time when—given the new Republican administration and directives—its credibility is especially crucial. Some fear ELF’s actions are undermining the legitimacy of mainstream groups.

“I think it is a huge step backwards,” timber executive Swanson says of the struggle. Swanson also believes that some ELF members are hiding under the cover of the mainstream groups, though there is no evidence to support this claim and several groups have already publicly denounced ELF’s actions.

“What we really need right now is for the mainstream environmental community to join us in tracking down these criminals,” David Szady, the FBI special agent in charge based in Portland, stated in a press release. “The longer this terrorism goes on, the greater toll it takes on the victims as well as the reputation of the activists who are trying to do good work within the law.”

The statement implies that mainstream movements might know more than they are letting on. Steve Shallhorn, campaign director for Greenpeace, in Washington, D.C., shrugs off the implications but takes issue with the commonly held notion that ELF members are extremists who have left the tamer legitimate movements.

“I would argue that it works the other way,” Shallhorn says. “I suspect that these people are young, frustrated and not very politically astute. I think you’ll find that ten, fifteen or twenty years from now, they’ll be a part of mainstream movements.”

Sybil Ackerman, conservation director for the Audubon Society in Portland hopes that the ideological and methodological differences between ELF and legitimate groups are clear to the public at large.

“We are lightyears away from what ELF does,” Ackerman says of the Audubon Society. “We will never resort to violence.” She points out that though change oftentimes comes slowly, mainstream environmental groups ultimately believe in the process.

“We’ve always felt that we need to have an incremental approach,” Ackerman says. “Resorting to extremism on any side doesn’t get us where we need to go.”

Other groups have not come out publicly for or against ELF or its tactics. This reticence to openly denounce the group has been confused by some as unspoken support.

“By not condemning these actions, [mainstream environmental groups] are setting an environment that allows ELF to continue,” Perlstein says. A contact at the Earth First! Cascadia Defense League in Eugene, Oregon, says that though Earth First! has not spoken out against ELF, it has felt some negative ramifications from their activities.

“I definitely think some nonviolent forest activists are being unfairly labeled as ecoterrorists as a result of ELF’s actions,” the contact says.

Greenpeace spokesman Aaron Bannon says his group’s methods speak for their ideology and clearly demonstrate the difference between ELF and the notoriously confrontational Greenpeace.

“We’ve always used nonviolent direct action to promote the goals of our campaign,” Bannon says of Greenpeace. “We don’t hesitate to practice civil disobedience—we get arrested all the time—but the safety of all involved is of the utmost importance.”

Earth First! believes ELF’s use of violence to promote its message is simply outmoded.

“It’s an old-guard approach; [methods] have evolved,” the Earth First! source says. “We can respect that they’re trying to protect the environment, but we don’t care to utilize their tactics.”

Shallhorn believes ELF’s methods are adversarial and hypocritical. “Destructive tactics are at best counterproductive,” he says. “At worst, they are the antithesis of what the environmental movement is about.”

Mainstream environmental groups have an impressive history of accomplish- ments, all achieved through nonviolent means of legislation, negotiation, education and—as a last resort—litigation.

“We’ve won so many victories for environmental protection,” Ackerman says of mainstream groups. Ackerman says that the recent establishment of the 170,000-acre Steens Mountain Wilderness was accomplished solely by dialogue and compromise between environmentalists and farmers. Bannon pointed to recent cooperative campaigns against Canadian logging behemoth Interfor that have brought about sweeping changes in retail giants Home Depot and Lowe’s. As a result of in-store protests and negotiations, both companies have agreed to purchase and sell only certified lumber.

“Any time you try to change things for the better, it’s going to be hard,” Ackerman adds. “People don’t get everything they want; that’s what democracy is all about.”

Despite the positive changes that legitimate groups bring about, ELF continues to choose violence. “Terrorist organizations employ direct-action tactics because these tactics have been known to work,” Perlstein says. Perlstein says that the wave of abortion clinic bombings and attacks resulted in a drop both in clinics performing abortions and in doctors entering the field of gynecology. ELF has fostered a similar atmosphere of fear and animosity. Some building and timber-related businesses are employing a bunker mentality, drastically increasing security measures with better lighting, video surveillance, fencing and, in some cases, armed security personnel.

“[The attack] increased our awareness of an even higher need for security,” says Doug Bartels, a spokesman for Boise Cascade Corporation, whose offices in Monmouth, Oregon, were set ablaze December 25, 1999. Superior Lumber had little security at the time of the January attack, and Swanson says the company has increased protection since then.

Rosebraugh believes building and timber businesses should change their ideology, not their security measures. “[Builders] should be putting their time, money and energy into making their developments as earth-friendly as possible,” he says. “Even if it means taking a little bit of a loss.”

The offices at Vail were rebuilt not long after the fire, expansion plans continue, and the company posted a net income of $16.1 million in the second quarter of this fiscal year, an increase of nearly $5 million from a year ago. A year after Boise Cascade was hit, the Monmouth offices also have been rebuilt and business has returned to normal. “We certainly wouldn’t let an incident like [the fire] cause us to look inward and change the way we operate,” Bartels says.

Swanson insists the attack on Superior Lumber had little impact on his company’s operations. “There’s been no reduction in output—we were selling lumber that afternoon,” Swanson says. “We’re going to continue to do exactly what we’ve been doing.”

And so, insists Rosebraugh, will ELF.