Matthew Wolfe's new book, Fires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabotage, examines the radical US eco-anarchist movement Earth Liberation Front (ELF) that used arson and economic sabotage between 1995 and 2001 to protest environmental destruction. The loosely organized group, based in the Pacific Northwest, targeted fur breeders, timber warehouses, meatpacking plants, SUV dealerships, and a ski resort in Vail, Colorado, causing over $12 million in damage. They called themselves 'the Family' and practiced non-violence toward life, though not property.
Origins in Eugene, Oregon
The ELF emerged from the eco-anarchist group Earth First!, founded a decade earlier as a radical alternative to mainstream conservation groups. Eugene, Oregon, an old logging town, became a hotbed for radical environmentalism. 'It was an old logging town where counter-cultural resistance and radical politics came crashing into capitalism,' Wolfe told the Guardian. 'A lot of people came there for the trees, and a lot of people came to cut down the trees.' The mixture of anarchists, animal rights activists, and environmentalists found Earth First!'s theatrical tactics insufficient, leading them to adopt arson as a serious tactic.
Key attacks and legacy
Between 1995 and 2001, ELF members conducted a string of arsons. The most famous was the 1998 Vail ski resort attack, which caused $12 million in damage, carried out on behalf of endangered lynx. In May 2001, after an attack on an Oregon tree farm, arsonists left a message: 'YOU CANNOT CONTROL WHAT IS WILD!' The group's actions were labeled domestic terrorism by the FBI, which reported in 2004 that over 34 field offices had 190 investigations into ELF and Animal Liberation Front activities. The FBI noted 'little, if any, known hierarchal structure' and 'remarkable levels of security awareness.'
Impact and prescience
Wolfe argues that the ELF seemed to take the climate threat seriously, responding in a way commensurate with the danger. A quarter century later, with massive wildfires raging globally, their point that society wasn't doing enough seems prescient. 'You can consider it an irony or a remark on what kind of violence we as a society are concerned with,' Wolfe said. 'Without endorsing what they were doing, and they were deeply unsuccessful, the result of their small fires failing was that much larger fires were in the offing.' The group's fires, meant to protest environmental destruction, now mirror the planet's own fires.
Connection to modern activism
Direct-action descendants like Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion, and Just Stop Oil share similar goals around fossil fuels, ecological damage, and authoritarianism. The Sierra Club, traditionally legislative-focused, officially endorsed protests in 2013. Recent protests against Tesla dealerships, opposing Elon Musk's involvement in Trump administration efforts, ended up setting fire to electric vehicles. Wolfe notes the essential question: 'How do you create a spectacle without turning people off?'
Prosecution and internal dissent
Some ELF members faced prosecution, with the government attributing $45 million in damages. Stanislas Meyerhoff, sentenced to 13 years for arsons including the Vail fire, said he 'was ignorant of history and economy and acted from a faulty and narrow vision as an ordinary bigot.' Others defended the message despite personal cost. Joseph Dibee, arrested in Cuba in 2018, claimed the ELF didn't really exist, paralleling debates about 'antifa.' The group attracted odd characters, including Jake Ferguson, a drifter who testified against others for immunity. One member, Josephine Overaker, remains at large, possibly working as a firefighter, midwife, or masseuse.
Decline and failure
The ELF's discipline frayed after the Vail attack as they sought to expand. A 1999 attack placed an incendiary near a gas line; a 2000 attack targeted a police substation and a family-owned lumber company. Wolfe describes the 1990s as 'a funny decade of deep pessimism and optimism,' where people felt frustrated about structural forces but optimistic enough to take them on. The ELF's failure may be their disconnection from mainstream pressure groups, making their attacks sensational fringe events. Yet the same frustrations exist today, with fires burning brighter. 'They'd protested and tried to make a change through traditional politics and were not getting the results they wanted. It came out of a place of real frustration and desperation,' Wolfe said.
