If you are interested, there's a chilling documentary on the ELF that I'd recommend: If a Tree Falls. Also to mknod and thenewgreen.

I grew up in the area where some of those arsons took place. I recall one day where there were reports of pipe bombs strapped to the bottom of SUVs in Salem, OR. Similarly, I can identify with the silent rage that one feels after seeing clear cuts. Cracked earth in that region is absolutely mind-numbing to see.

Ultimately, I believe Wilderness is a myth.

The origin of the word wilderness comes from something like 'self-willed'. The word came into usage around the same time in the history of English that the common road for 'ocean' was equivalent to 'whale-road'. It is an old word from a different time. Just as we don't consider the ocean a highway for giant sea creatures, we know the wilderness isn't acting on its own. It's fenced in - par-baked and ripe for the taking. The most visible and aesthetic features survive as images on stamped postcards, which are perhaps ironically made from the invisible devastation. Quarterly reports on the population of white-tailed deer - which only populate the outer rim of a healthy forest - keep the myth alive that our forest system is doing well, and our uncles keep hunting them, thinking to themselves 'I love the wilderness'.

Environmental tourism is a facade, a convenient distractor for the US's ecocide.