Following the November 14th story on the Massive Forest Fires several other news outlets ran stories similar to the one on News With Views. The Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke toured the recent forest fires in Northern California and the following news stories document what he said as a result.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke blames ‘radical environmentalists’ for deadly California wildfires
By Paulina Dedaj Fox News
‘The president’s right’: Interior chief pushes thinning forests to cut fire risk
By Dale Kasler Sacramento Bee
With the information documented in the previous Fox News story and the Sacramento Bee story regarding what Secretary Ryan Zinke said, it substantiates the documentation in my previous story.
For over 20 years I have monitored several “radical environmental” organizations. As a Montana licensed private investigator I spent one year as an infiltrator in Earth First (EF).
This one year gave me access to numerous other groups such as the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) whose beliefs are even more radical than those of EF. Another group not as radical at that time was the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity (SWCBD) but as in Northern California its actions caused a massive forest fire.
Among the recent staff of the SWCBD are former Earth First activist Keiran Suckling, Peter Galvin, Bill Haskins and Todd Schulke. While the Center’s staff has neither been charged nor convicted of any terrorism their beginning was somewhat controversial and circumspect.
Kierán Suckling, Executive Director, is a founder of the SWCBD.
Suckling is currently the executive director of the SWCBD and the founder of the Earth First SWCBD. On April 27, 1998 Suckling, stated in the Tucson Citizen, “We’re not trying to shut everything down.” However at that time and currently this statement contradicts their apparent goals and the opinions of those whose jobs, lives and communities have been drastically impacted by the law suits filed by the SWCBD and other extremist groups on a national basis to stop logging /thinning activites.
One example of these lawsuits was the Rodeo-Chedensky fire that left over 400 families’ homeless and ultimately severely damaged the entire community. Many citizens of Arizona blamed “radical environmentalist” for the June 18, 2002, fire including Arizona Senator Jon Kyl. The criticism comes as a result of a lawsuit over the Mexican Spotted owl which prohibited timber interests from thinning and cleaning the forest floors.
Suckling’s resume shows he was a USFS employee, working as an “owl surveyor.” During the beginning of his career as an Earth Firster, Suckling and the SWCBD were based in Silver City, New Mexico. Until Ted Turner’s foundation and other foundations stepped in, Suckling and his fellow Earth Firsters were without funds. It was during this time that Suckling was arrested on November 26, 1994 in Silver City, New Mexico for shoplifting a pair of hiking boots at the local Wal-Mart store for which he plead “no contest.”
In a Denver Post article, “An environmental group claimed responsibility for fires that caused $12 million in damages to the facilities at the nation’s busiest ski resort.
“Authorities have said the Earth Liberation Front cell was responsible for 20 arsons [actually current count is several hundred] around the West that did $40 million in damage, including the 1998 fire that destroyed a restaurant and other facilities at the Vail ski area. Other targets included a horse slaughterhouse and U.S. Forest Service ranger stations, research facilities, and an SUV dealership, all in Oregon.
“The group disbanded in 2001, but a federal task force known as Operation Backfire turned an informant and broke open the cell in 2005. The leader, William C. Rodgers, ran a bookstore in Prescott, Ariz. He committed suicide in jail in 2005 after his arrest.
“Chelsea Gerlach pleaded guilty to conspiracy, destruction of an energy facility and 23 counts of arson in 2007 and was sentenced to nine years in prison. As a member of the clandestine Family,
”Gerlach and others helped cell leader Rodgers in October 1998 haul fuel up to the Vail ski area. There, under the cloak of darkness, he torched the stately Two Elk Lodge and several other buildings and lifts, causing an estimated $24 million in damage.”
While thousands of people blame PG&E solely for the recent fires there are reasons to also look at the extremist groups that have prevented the US Forest Service and others for not cleaning the massive fuel buildup for the current fires.
According to Martin Espinoza Spinoza of the Press Democrat on June 19, 2018 Celebrity environmental crusader Erin Brockovich, who made famous by an Oscar-winning film about her work fighting PG&E, has joined the legal team representing more than 1,500 North Bay residents suing the utility company over last year’s wildfires.
Brockovich, who addressed a crowd of fire survivors Tuesday in Santa Rosa, has been brought on as a consultant for Mauro Archer & Associates and Watts Guerra LLP because of her long history working on lawsuits against PG&E, said former state Sen. Noreen Evans, a Santa Rosa attorney with Watts Guerra.
Google the following and it will give one a broader insight to information on the radical groups and what they advocate.
Deep ecology – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Timeline of Earth Liberation Front actions – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Religion, violence and radical environmentalism – From Earth First! to the Unabomber to the earth liberation front.
Author Email: unfrend1@yahoo.com
Mr. Clausen has been a guest on over 250 U.S. and Canadian radio talk shows and TV news shows including ABC, CBS, NBC and repeatedly on FOX News.
He has been featured or quoted in over 800 books, magazines and news articles including the San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, Vancouver Province, Canada’s B.C. Report, New York Times, Newsday, Seattle Times, Oregonian, Sacramento Bee, Christian Science Monitor, The Dallas Morning News and a lengthy article beginning on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Clausen’s information has been translated and used by publications in many foreign countries including Japan, Ireland, England, Turkey, Germany, France and Chile.
In 1994, a film crew from Danish TV-2 flew to Seattle to interview Mr. Clausen for a television documentary about international and U.S. extremist organizations. The documentary, A MAN IN THE RAINBOW, was subsequently aired in several European countries.
© 2018 Barry Clausen – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Barry Clausen: unfrend1@yahoo.com
