ELF this week posted a manual on its Web site that tells would-be arsonists how to build simple bombs.
A predawn fire in rural Oregon Friday destroyed a logging truck and damaged two other vehicles belonging to a timber company that planned to cut down trees in an area environmentalists have sought to protect.
The Oregonian newspaper said Friday that no one had taken blame for the attack. Authorities would not comment on whether the incendiary devices used to start the fire were similar to ones used in earlier arson attacks believed to have been committed by Earth Liberation Front.
"These are simple devices. They are not sophisticated," said John McMahon, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Six devices, each containing about a gallon of flammable liquid, were apparently planted underneath some logging trucks at the offices of Ray A. Schoppert Logging near Estacada in Clackamas County. Only one ignited, destroying that truck and damaging two others.
While similar to devices allegedly used in the past by ELF, the Oregonian reported that the shadowy organization recently posted instructions for the bombs on its Web site, where they could be copied by anyone.
"They went into great detail, and explained how to place these incendiary devices," McMahon said. "We don't like to see that, but there's nothing we can do about it."
Schoppert was scheduled to begin logging on 165 acres in the Eagle Creek watershed of the Mount Hood National Forest despite opposition from environmental groups.
Cascadia Forest Alliance, which has denied responsibility for the fire, had established a camp not far from the logging site. About 50 activists were in attendance, a spokeswoman said, including a handful who have been living illegally on platforms constructed in the trees.
Ray Schoppert himself told the Oregonian that the damage to his vehicles would not stop the logging, although a court ruling Thursday did bring a large number of timber operations to a temporary halt.
A three-judge panel of the Ninth District Court of Appeals ordered a halt to logging on 15,000-20,000 acres of federal trees that were sold to timber companies in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. The justices claimed that the sales had been made without adequate consideration of the harm logging could do to the habitat of the endangered cutthroat trout and coho salmon.
Environmentalists had argued that while federal scientists decided that the logging would not cause much harm to an entire watershed, the studies did not take into account the damage that would be done to specific spawning streams.
The ruling is expected to be appealed to the full Ninth Circuit court.
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