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Re: ELF  From:  http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/books021901.stm

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Dance of the Burning Vails

A review of Powder Burn: Arson, Money and Mystery on Vail Mountain

by Florangela Davila
19 Feb 2001

A little over two years ago, fire swept through five buildings and four ski
lifts in Vail, Colo., causing more than $12 million in damage, upending a
small town already reeling from enormous change, and eventually introducing
the word ecoterrorism into the mainstream lexicon.

Indeed, so prominent were the arson fires of 19 Oct. 1998 that the event not
only spawned numerous news stories but also elbowed its way to becoming a
minor story line on the TV drama "The West Wing." In one episode, after some
staff bantering over the physical characteristics of the animal known as a
lynx, the Vail fires are cited as a spectacular show of force by a
little-known group (and one that ought now to be taken seriously, it is
implied) called the Earth Liberation Front.

In actuality, the ELF has claimed responsibility for more than 20 major
crimes, including fires that destroyed three homes on Long Island, N.Y.,
last month.

Two days after the Vail fires, the ELF released a communique that explained
it had set the fires because a proposed expansion project at the ski resort
would ruin lynx habitat. "Putting profits ahead of Colorado's wildlife will
not be tolerated," the notice read. It then advised skiers to be safe and go
elsewhere.


The legitimacy of the ELF's claim and the investigation of the fires --
which are still unsolved -- is the subject of Daniel Glick's new book,
Powder Burn.

A special correspondent for Newsweek, Glick wrote the book, he explains in
the prologue, because after years of covering the Rocky Mountains West, he
came to believe that the Vail story captured the quintessential aspects of
what has been called "the new West." This new West, a beacon for dot-commers
and anyone else with enough wealth to buy a multimillion dollar house and
then bulldoze it in order to build a more suitable home, has roused the
frustration and resentment of those who prefer the West as it once was:
simple, quiet, and unpopular. Thus, although the identity of the Vail
arsonist remains a mystery, there is no surprise that such animosity was
here. A conflict had been simmering for years, and as Glick writes, "The
suspect list was a crowded place."

As far as mysteries go, this story is unsatisfying. There is no neat and
tidy ending. There is no infiltration of the ELF, although Glick tried. And
readers seeking a primer on the lynx will be disappointed -- this isn't that
sort of book.

Powder Burn does, however, provide a thorough presentation of the history
and transformation of a lettuce patch and sheep pasture into a world-class
ski resort. It's a story about how two guys named Pete Seibert and Earl
Eaton first cut trail, how the popularity of skiing took off, how
undeveloped private land became an anomaly. It is fundamentally a story
about class warfare -- which just happens to be set in the nation's biggest
ski resort.

Glick introduces an abundance of people who are tied to Vail in one way or
another, to whom the resort is work, fortune, sport, or home. They own the
resort; groom the slopes; run the local coffeehouse; and enforce the law.
And some of these people -- particularly members of a group called the
Ancient Forest Rescue -- want to stop the resort expansion.

"As I hung out in the bars and in the slopes, in the humble double-wides,
and in the sumptuous multimillion dollar condominiums, I couldn't shake the
sense than many people believed the current owners of the ski area somehow
deserved to be burned," Glick writes in his book's epilogue. "In any company
town, it's not unusual for the locals to resent the company; but the depth
of antipathy ... was startling."

As a profile of a place, Powder Burn succeeds because it immerses the reader
in every facet of Vail life. Glick's book doesn't break new ground as an
investigation of environmental activism, but it provides a context to
understand the underlying causes of dramatic events like the Vail fires --
and to understand why such acts are likely to recur in the West and
elsewhere.

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Florangela Davila is a staff reporter at the Seattle Times.

Grist Magazine: Environmental news and humor.

© 2001, Earth Day Network. All rights reserved.