FOREST VANDALISM SLOWS ENVIRONMENTAL EFFORTS

Raised awareness about environmental issues is one of the positive social changes that occurred during 1990. Still, this movement is tempered, at least in public perception, by the destructive and dangerous actions of a few radical elements. In the case of timber cutting in the Illinois Shawnee National Forest, courts have ruled this a lawful activity, one meriting full protection of the law. In the case of tree spiking and other vandalism, the perpetrators must be dealt with to the full extent of the law.

The Shawnee Forest has been the scene of continued altercations between forestry officials, loggers and self-proclaimed environmental saviors known as Earth First!. Earlier this month, it was confirmed that large nails and steel spikes had been driven into more than 15 trees in the area where commercial timber harvesting will take place. Also found was a culvert intentionally stuffed with debris to create a hindrance to drainage, and nails planted in access roadways.

While none of the vandalism has been linked by direct evidence to the Earth First! group, tree spiking is a tactic frequently used by the national organization to halt timbering efforts. The spikes not only harm the trees (that the group espouses protection for) but pose a serious hazard to the timber workers whose philosophical stake in the matter may be only in feeding their families.

These methods are to the extreme side even of the Earth First! group's spiritual kin, Greenpeace, which tends more toward high-profile publicity stunts than actual sabotage. From time to time, however, Greenpeace has crossed the line and put its members and others at physical risk. If these efforts are glorified by environmentalists, the tribute is misdirected.

Plenty of problems are going unaddressed in environmentalism, and those that are being addressed are not all close to resolution. Still, there is little question that we are better environmental citizens for having focused on these issues over the last 12 months. It would be a shame to have the good work of many, through legitimate public and private awareness efforts, diminished by the infractions of a few.