Environmental group says it set Vail fires

the Associated Press

Vail Colo. (AP) Oct.22,1998

An environmental group has claimed responsibility for a series of fires that caused ail estimated $12 million in damage on Vail Mountain.
"We are currently investigating the content, credibility and origin of this message," which was signed "Earth Liberation Front," said Eagle County sheriff's spokeswoman Kim Andree.
If the claim is verified, it would become one of the worst ecoterrorism crimes in this country, one expert said.
"This is completely genuine. There is absolutely no reason to doubt it," said Katie Fedor, spokesoman for the Animal Liberation Front, which has worked with the Earth Liberation Front during past protests.
She said the Animal Liberation Front was not involved in the Vail fires.
The FBI, which is involved in the investigation of Monday's fires, did not return calls to The Associated Press.
The Environmental Liberation Front sent an e-mail message to KCFR-FM Colorado Public Radio in Denver, saying it started the fires in protest of Vail Associates moving forward with its 885-acre Category III ski expansion.
The Earth covers terrain that environmentlists say is vital for reintroduction of lynx into Colorado. Environmentalists lost a court battle last week to stop construction.
"On behalf of the lynx, five buildings and four ski lifts at Vail were reduced to ashes on the night of Sunday, October 18th," the Earth Liberation Front message said. "Vail Inc. is already the largest ski operation in North America and now wants to expand even further."
The expansion "will ruin the last, best lynx habitat in the state. Putting profits ahead of Colorado's wildlife will not be tolerated.... We will be back if this greedy corporation continues to trespass into wild and unroaded areas," the group's message said.
The Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility in June for spraying red paint on the Mexican Consulate in Boston in protest of the treatment of peasants in Chiapas, Mexico. In July the group claimed to have "rescued" 310 animals at a research fur farm in Wisconsin working with the Animal Liberation Front.
The group also claimed to have set a fire in November at a Burns, Ore. corral that was a holding place for wild horses and burros captured by the Bureau of Land Management.

In October 1996, the Earth Liberation Front, which is linked to EarthFirst, set a government truck on fire and spray-painted "Earth Liberation Front," "Forest Rapers" and other anti-logging graffiti on U.S. Forest Service buildings and vehicles at a district ranger station, according to the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise in Bellevue, Wash., which tracks ecoterrorism reports.