ELF
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AP photo
Larry Davis for
The New York Times |
Seattle -- One fire gutted a research laboratory at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture here, while the other destroyed two buildings and several vehicles at a poplar tree nursery in northwestern Oregon. Both were reported shortly after 3 a.m. Monday.
Yesterday, federal authorities were combing both sites for clues, acting on what they described as strong indications that both fires were the work of a loosely knit group of radical environmentalists violently opposed to research on the genetic modification of trees.
At the Seattle site, some research was conducted into such modification which, as with altered foods, can make trees more productive for commercial purposes. Managers of the 7,300-acre Oregon tree farm said they do not create or grow genetically engineered trees there, but a company that once owned the property was affiliated with a university-based group called the Poplar Molecular Genetics Cooperative.
At the Oregon site -- Jefferson Poplar Farms in Clatskanie -- the words "You cannot control what is wild" and "ELF" were spray-painted on the sides of one of the remaining buildings, said FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele. The initials stand for Earth Liberation Front, a movement that has claimed responsibility for arson and vandalism against commercial properties in recent years, including a ski resort in Colorado, a cotton gin near Visalia (Tulare County), and housing sites in Long Island.
FBI officials said last night that the identical timing of the fires and other factors make them almost certainly related.
A man who identified himself as a spokesman for the North American Earth Liberation Front media office, in Portland, Ore., said yesterday that such acts were a justifiable response to the sort of "genetic engineering of our forests" that he said large corporations are carrying out.
"These companies are rolling the dice with the biodiversity of the natural environment," said Leslie James Pickering. He said members of the media office such as himself are not ELF members and only report its activities.
At the University of Washington laboratory, Dr. H.D. Bradshaw, a plant geneticist in whose office the fire began, expressed some bafflement as to why his place of work was targeted now or in a separate attack in 1999, when a group calling itself the Washington Tree Improvement Association hacked down nearly 200 trees in a nearby nursery.
"I've personally never genetically engineered a tree," Bradshaw said as he gazed at the rubble of the site, which destroyed his office and much of the lab.
Dr. Tom Hinckley, the center's director, said he lost more than 30 years of research files, as well as slides that meticulously document the regrowth of vegetation around Mt. St. Helens in the years since it erupted in May 1980.
Bradshaw's research includes the study of genetically engineered poplars kept in a nearby greenhouse -- none of those trees were damaged in the fire -- and he said that his own basic research is geared toward identifying the genes that affect plant growth and form, rather than the creation of a marketable product.
If the fires were the work of the ELF or a similar group, they constitute acts that virtually no mainstream environmental organization has countenanced.
CLATSKANIE, Ore. (AP) -- Near simultaneous arson fires more than 100 miles apart in Oregon and Washington appear almost identical and authorities were trying to determine if radical environmentalists were to blame.
``There seems to be a similarity in the way the fires started,'' John McMahon, supervisory special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Portland, told The Oregonian of Portland in Tuesday's editions.
No one was injured in either fire and no arrests had been made Wednesday morning. Both fires were reported early Monday morning and total damage was estimated at more than $2.5 million.
The FBI was investigating whether the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmentalist organization, set the blaze in Clatskanie that destroyed two buildings and several vehicles at Jefferson Poplar Farms.
A second fire in Seattle gutted laboratories and offices at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture. A small part of the research at the center deals with trees whose genes have been altered, a science despised by many environmentalists.
Damage estimates at the horticulture center alone have been boosted to as much as $3 million. University police Capt. John Brouelette said it was the worst attack on property on campus since the Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s and early '70s.
Some undetonated explosives were found near the tree farm office building and investigators have developed ``solid'' leads in the case, McMahon told The Oregonian. He would not elaborate.
An ELF spokesman, Leslie James Pickering, said Tuesday he had not received any message from anyone in the group claiming responsibility but added that he believed the fires are linked.
``We are speculating that we will receive a communique soon,'' Pickering said. Pickering claims he is not an ELF member and only reports its activities.
McMahon said investigators were studying the affiliation of the Oregon poplar farm with the Washington research site. The two facilities traded materials to study high-tech tree farming and collaborated in poplar research, he said.
Previous owners of the Clatskanie tree farm were affiliated with a university-based group called the Poplar Molecular Genetics Cooperative, according to H.D. ``Toby'' Bradshaw, a professor at the urban horticulture center. Investigators said the Seattle fire started in Bradshaw's office.
Bradshaw said the attack set him back no more than six weeks. But about 10,000 volumes were damaged at a rare botany books library and about 20 percent probably cannot be restored, library director Valerie Easton said.
Center director Thomas M. Hinckley said he lost more than 30 years of teaching and research records, and scientist Sarah E. Reichard said she lost more than a hundred specimens of rare native plants.
The crime scene outside Clatskanie was spray-painted with slogans of the ELF, as was the phrase ``You cannot control what is wild,'' said FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele.
The Earth Liberation Front is a shadowy group that, since 1996, has claimed responsibility for arson attacks against commercial entities that the radicals say threaten or damage the environment.
The FBI considers the ELF one of the county's leading domestic terrorist organizations, with millions of dollars in damage linked to its actions since 1997.
The ELF claimed responsibility for a 1998 fire that caused $12 million in damage at the Vail, Colo., ski resort. The group said the fire was set because Vail had expanded into lynx habitat. The group also claimed responsibility for other fires including one Jan. 2 that caused $400,000 damage at Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale, Ore.
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