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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 27, 2006 Steve Swanson�s Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale was firebombed by the Earth Liberation Front in 2001. The firm, now known as Swanson Group, has since expanded and employs more than 1,000 workers. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Violence: A failed tactic? Targets of ecosabotage hope arrests will send a message By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune The call came early Jan. 2, 2001, just as Steve Swanson was wrapping up a holiday vacation in Southern California. His mother was on the phone to let him know the headquarters of the family-owned Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale had burned overnight. "My first thought was that someone had left the coffee pot on," recalled the president of Swanson Group Inc., formerly known as Superior. "But within minutes I was getting other calls from employees who were saying it wasn’t an accident." He flew home to find a full-blown criminal investigation under way in the firm’s fire-gutted headquarters. FBI agents, Oregon State Police officers and local and state fire investigators were combing through the ashes. Advertisement The coffeepot hadn’t overheated: the Earth Liberation Front on the next day took credit for the arson, which caused up to $800,000 in damage. And Superior Lumber suddenly found itself on the front lines of a war waged by environmental extremists, a group the federal government calls ecoterrorists. Since the fall of 1996, 16 similar acts of sabotage, all but one including arson, have exploded in Oregon and four other Western states, targeting timber industry offices, government offices, university research sites, ski facilities, SUV dealerships, meatpacking plants and a high-voltage tower. Those attacks, which included torching the U.S. Forest Industries headquarters in Medford on Dec. 27, 1998, did some $27.8 million in damage, according to U.S. Department of Justice estimates. In all the incidents, either ELF or the equally elusive Animal Liberation Front claimed credit. Although no related incidents have been reported since Sept. 11, 2001, the day Islamic terrorists attacked the United States, the war hasn’t ended. Last month, the Department of Justice announced that a Eugene grand jury returned a 65-count indictment against 11 defendants, charging them with arson and conspiracy. Greensprings resident Jonathan Paul, 40, and Applegate Valley resident Suzanne Savoie, 28, were among those charged. Two more were arrested Thursday in Olympia, Wash., as part of the government’s sweeping investigation. More arrests are possible as the investigation continues, federal prosecutors say. Nailing the culprits couldn’t come too soon for David Schott, a former Jackson County prosecutor and executive vice president of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association. He wants those found guilty prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. "I personally despise violations of the law, particularly people who take the law into their own hands," he said, adding, "I would feel the same way about anyone from the timber industry doing anything like this." He shrugs off concerns by some that the term "ecoterrorism" is politically loaded. The intent of the arsonists was to intimidate and frighten those targeted, he said. Medford resident Jerry Bramwell agreed. Like Swanson, the president of the now defunct U.S. Forest Industries won’t soon forget the call informing him the company headquarters was engulfed in flames. "You would not wish this kind of thing to happen to your worst enemy," he said of the fire that gutted his office early that Sunday morning in December 1998. The arsonists apparently focused on the computer area, destroying the hardware, he said, although noting the fire destroyed the building. The fire caused more than a half million dollars in damage, he said. Although it wouldn’t be until Jan. 16, 1999, that ELF claimed responsibility, Bramwell figured arson was the cause. "The suspicion was there almost instantly," he said. A group of Colorado activists had protested earlier in 1998 in front of the company’s headquarters, angry that the firm’s logging in Colorado had allegedly degraded the downstream water supply of a small agrarian community. The logging was on private land, Bramwell noted. In a fax to The Associated Press office in Portland, ELF claimed responsibility for the Medford arson. "To celebrate the holidays, we decided on a bonfire," the fax read. "Unfortunately for U.S. Forest Industries, it was their corporate headquarters ... This action is payback and it is a warning, to all others responsible we do not sleep and we wont (sic) quit." Three people have been charged with attempted arson at the site on Dec. 22, 1998, following a botched attempt at firebombing the headquarters. They came back on the 27th to spark the blaze, the federal indictment states. "I’m not trying to defend those people but I think they spent a large amount of time watching our coming and going for their own protection to make sure there wasn’t any people there," Bramwell said. "They knew our schedule." The arson didn’t destroy the firm, although unrelated events would eventually cause it to go under, he said. At the time of the fire, the firm had a veneer mill in White City, a Grants Pass plywood mill, a stud mill in Colorado and a sawmill in Florida. "After that fire we were back up and running by Monday," Bramwell said. "We got tremendous support from people." Up in Glendale, the arson also brought people together, Swanson said. "We did everything we could to shrug it off and go about our business," he said, noting the first concern was to make sure the employees and the bills were paid. The next day the ELF took credit for the arson in a statement received by Portland resident Craig Rosebraugh, a radical environmentalist who periodically publicized the group’s crimes but claimed he was not directly involved. "Superior Lumber is a typical earth raper contributing to the ecological destruction of the Northwest," the statement said. "What happened to them should shock no one." Immediately following the Glendale arson, many environmental groups spoke out against the violent act, noting it did nothing to further the debate on protecting the environment. "I was dismayed — I wondered what I had done to be targeted by an arsonist," said Swanson, whose father and uncle started Superior in 1951. He discounted the accusations by ELF. "We’re not multinational — we’re family owned," he said. "You spend time trying to ascertain why it happened, why we were singled out of the hundreds of businesses in the state and thousands across the nation." However, the fact that his firm purchases federal timber sales may have been the trigger, he said. Whatever the intent, the arson did not destroy the business, he said. The firm, which had about 400 employees when the arson occurred, has expanded and now has slightly more than 1,000 workers, he said. In addition to Glendale, it has operations in Eugene, Roseburg and Glide. It also has a helicopter facility in Grants Pass and a wholesale operation in Medford. "The authorities need to send a message that any terrorism, including terrorizing the forest products industry, is not acceptable," Swanson said. "It’s unfortunate some people were led astray but it has to stop." Although both ALF and ELF have let it be known that they respected life and made sure no one was hurt, Swanson is dubious. "They had no way of knowing there wasn’t someone in the office," he said. "They didn’t know if a policeman or fireman would be hurt or killed." When the headquarters was rebuilt, a special effort was made to make it as fireproof as possible, he said. "But I don’t spend a lot of time looking over my shoulder," Swanson said, adding, "If they really wanted to do something, they are going to do it." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at Violence: A failed tactic? ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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