Fire on the Mountain

By John Cloud

If it were in Europe, a place like Vail, Colo., would fit the exalted category of "ski circus," a place so sprawling and opulent as to be almost a sovereignty unto itself. But last week that rather complacent empire was startled by a message from a tiny band. Early Monday morning someone set Vail Mountain ablaze. Seven fires spread along a mile-long ridge overlooking the tony ski village, demolishing a restaurant, a patrol building and a picnic shelter and impairing several lifts. No one was hurt, but the damage totaled $12 million.

Investigators were stumped until midweek, when something called the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility. A fax purporting to be from the ELF said the group had sponsored what was probably history's costliest ecoterrorist strike "on behalf of the lynx," a spike-eared wildcat all but gone from the state. It went on, "This action is just a warning...For your safety and convenience, we strongly advise skiers to choose other destinations."

It was nice of the terrorists to worry about skier "convenience," but the "safety" part drew Washington's concern: about 70 FBI and other federal agents descended on Vail to pursue the culprits and stop any future terrorist acts. The investigators were racing against time: winter comes early at 11,000 ft. They cautioned that they had no clear suspects, though they were sure the fires weren't accidental.

The ELF doesn't have a press office (or headquarters or even a website), so it was hard to know exactly what to make of the self-proclaimed terrorists. The fires fit the front's m.o., and allies of the group didn't deny it was involved. Said Katie Fedor, spokeswoman for a sympathetic organization called the Animal Liberation Front: "Economic sabotage is justified when we have large corporations whose interests are protected because of their money."

In this case, the corporation is Vail Resorts, which operates eight hotels, 82 restaurants and many other businesses in Vail and nearby communities. Just before the fires, the company won a bitter court battle to begin Category III, an Orwellian-sounding ski development on what is now 885 virgin acres of mountain forest. Environmentalists oppose the expansion because they think it will chase away the few remaining lynxes believed to be on the land, one of the species' last known habitats. Workers had begun clearing trees for Category III just days before the fires.

So score one for tree huggers turned fire bombers: the lynx is no longer a forgotten feline. But aside from that meager p.r. coup, the group committed as much an act of self-destructive futility as of terrorism; the fires didn't halt Category III, which Vail Resorts said would proceed more or less on schedule. The blazes won't even delay the start of the ski season.

Additionally, the fires healed, at least temporarily, a festering rift between town and company. Many townspeople are concerned that Vail Resorts, one of the largest U.S. ski operators, is seeking to singlehandedly control the area's economic life. The firm has expanded its real estate ventures and has branched into the kind of non-ski businesses that were traditionally run by ski-town locals, including retail shops and a controversial entertainment complex called Adventure Ridge. "It's drawing people away," as many as 1,200 a night, says Jonathan Staufer, owner of a local cookware store. But most such complaints were quieted last week. Even Staufer, one of the more persistent critics, says the fires were "an attack on everybody and on the lifeblood of all in the valley."

More broadly, the fires may signal a last wheeze of radicalism within environmentalism. When radicals lose arguments, they burn things, thereby rendering themselves unable to effect real change. Earth Liberation Fronters forsook the demands of democracy (reason, persuasion) when they formed the loose-knit movement in 1992. Some say they were angry that their mother group, Earth First!, wouldn't promote sabotage. Others theorize that Earth Firsters orchestrated the split to deflect blame for "monkey wrenching," as these tactics are called, from the main organization. Whatever the case, Fedor says the ELFs are experienced monkey wrenchers. Last year they allegedly helped torch two facilities in Oregon used to corral and slaughter wild horses, and they are the suspected culprits in the escape of 310 mink from Wisconsin fur farmers.

Some enviro-lefties were sympathetic to the ELFs. "They don't want this to be seen like an act of terrorism," Craig Rosebraugh, spokesman for the Oregon-based Liberation Collective, told the Denver Post. "They instead want this to be seen as an act of love for the environment." But most environmentalists denounced the fires. "Whatever the motive," says Ted Zukoski, an attorney who fought Category III, "it doesn't further the cause."

--Reported by Maureen Harrington/Vail and Richard Woodbury/Denver

With reporting by Maureen Harrington/Vail and Richard Woodbury/Denver