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[Kelly]

Ski lift arsonist caught.

Jeff Barnard
December 14, 2005

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EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A 28-year-old woman was called a ‘prime suspect’ in the arson attack that destroyed the Two Elk restaurant and damaged nearby chairlifts on Vail Mountain in 1998.

The Earth Liberation Front — an underground group that advocates economic sabotage to stop what they say is environmental destruction — claimed responsibility for the firebombing, saying it did so “on behalf of lynx” threatened by Vail Resorts’ expansion into Blue Sky Basin.

“Even though the arson was seven years ago, we’re very encouraged that the authorities continue to show interest in this case,” Vail Resorts chief executive Adam Aron said Tuesday night.

Damage from the 1998 attack on Vail Mountain is estimated to have been about $12 million.


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The 1998 Two Elk fire, which did $12 million to Vail's mountaintop restaurant, was seen as a radical environmental group's response to the company's plan to develop Blue Sky Basin.
Special to the Daily/Peter Fredin

Browse Vail Daily Photos
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The suspect, Chelsea D. Gerlach of Portland, was one of six people arrested in five states last week on indictments alleging they took part in a string of arson attacks and other crimes between 1998 and 2001 in Oregon and Washington, for which the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front took responsibility.

A seventh person remains at large, perhaps in Germany, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Engdahl said Tuesday.

Gerlach is also a prime suspect in five other cases, said Engdahl, who made the allegation against her during a bail hearing in U.S. District Court.

Mainstream environmental groups also lobbied hard against the Blue Sky Basin expansion. Rocky Smith, of one such group, Colorado Wild, said Tuesday night the Blue Sky Basin expansion was a frustrating loss.

“But it certainly doesn’t justify destruction,” he said. “In fact, it generated sympathy for Vail that they didn’t deserve.”

Smith said he hopes Gerlach and the others get a fair trial.

“As far as ecoterror in general, it’s not productive, and morally you can’t justify it,” Smith said. “If you think your cause is so great you can do damage, you’ve already lost the battle.

Journalist Allen Best, who covered the fire, said even mainstream environmental groups fell under suspicion.

“Right after it there was a general blanket — you oppose the ski area expansion so you are a suspect,” Best said. “A lot of people got hurt during this. There were very good people in the environmental community that didn’t want to get involved in this.”

Text of a 1998 e-mail allegedly sent by ELF members
On behalf of the lynx, five buildings and four ski lifts at Vail were reduced to ashes on the night of Sunday, October 18th. Vail, Inc. is already the largest ski operation in North America and now wants to expand even further. The 12 miles of roads and 885 acres of clearcuts will ruin the last, best lynx habitat in the state. Putting profits ahead of Colorado’s wildlife will not be tolerated. This action is just a warning. We will be back if this greedy corporation continues to trespass into wild and unroaded areas. For your safety and convenience, we strongly advise skiers to choose other destinations until Vail cancels its inexcusable plans for expansion.
— Earth Liberation Front (E.L.F.)

Gerlach, 28, has been indicted on charges she helped two others topple a Bonneville Power Administration high-tension line 25 miles east of Bend, Ore. on the night of Dec. 30, 1999.

Prosecutors also have filed a criminal complaint against her in the May 9, 1999, firebombing of the Childers Meat Co. in Eugene, Ore. Engdahl said he will present evidence to a grand jury Wednesday seeking indictments against Gerlach in the meatpacking fire and a 2001 firebombing at a tree farm in Clatskanie, also in Oregon.

Former Eagle County Sheriff A.J. Johnson said his investigators worked with local and Portland, Ore.-based taskforces at the time, exchanging names and information.

“It’s a major step in closing it. If this person is involved it may lead to other people involved,” Johnson said. “Obviously I hope they’ve got a good case.”

Judge Thomas Coffin ordered Gerlach held without bail, pending the outcome of Wednesday’s grand jury session.

In arguing that she be held without bail, Engdahl said Gerlach had a boyfriend who was an illegal alien from Canada, and is a prime suspect in five other cases.

Those cases are the Oct. 11, 1998, attempted arson at Bureau of Land Management wild horse corrals in Rock Springs, Wyo.; the Oct. 19, 1998, arson attack in Vail; the Dec. 25, 1999, arson of a Boise Cascade office in Monmouth, Ore.; the May 21 firebombing of the Jefferson Poplar Farm in Clatskanie, for which two others have been arrested; and the May 21, 2001, firebombing of a University of Washington horticultural research center in Seattle.

Federal public defender Craig Weinerman argued for Gerlach’s release, saying the evidence against her was meager, and so far amounted only to statements from two informants involved in the meatpacking plant arson.

Colorado Wild’s Smith, harkening to the old Beatles song “Revolution,” said his thoughts on ecoterror have always echoed the lyrics: “But when you talk about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out.”

“The attack on Vail Mountain backfired,” he said. “It was just dumb.”

Vail Daily reporters Alex Miller, J.K. Perry and Matt Zalaznick contributed to this report.

Vail, Colorado

Series of articles at http://vaildaily.com/

[Lift Dinosaur]

Good News!

[WBSKI]

didnt know they existed but good news! broken link by the way

[Peter]

There was a great book about this called "Powder Burn: Arson, Money, and Mystery on Vail Mountain."

[coskibum]

Great news! you should have seen the temporary lodge that they put in two elks place that season. it was quite a feat to have it installed by christmas. Im glad this case has made progress.

[iceberg210]

Well purposeful arson is fine with me like the old Eskimo lift in the destruction tests. But I'm incredibly happy that they caught the person who set this fire as it obviously had malisous intent. Anyway besides electronics I would think the damage to the lifts would be minor especially if you got to the fire fairly early.

[Emax]

Here's a news photo of the guy.

[SkiBachelor]

I hate the ELF group and wish they would all die. They are a bunch of hypocrites and handle their protests the wrong way. When the ELF burned up all the SUVs at the Romania dealership in Eugene, Oregon back in 2000, when the main speaker arrived to give a speach about the incident, he arrived in a SUV. It's almost they do the arson for fun and claim that they are doing it to save the enviroment. You don't burn down peoples homes and say that you did it because developement is bad for the enviroment when infact we have to have homes to live in. It's also how they focus on all enviromental aspects rather than sticking to one which many enviromental groups do.

[poloxskier]

iceberg210, on Dec 14 2005, 04:30 PM, said:

Well purposeful arson is fine with me like the old Eskimo lift in the destruction tests. But I'm incredibly happy that they caught the person who set this fire as it obviously had malisous intent. Anyway besides electronics I would think the damage to the lifts would be minor especially if you got to the fire fairly early.

I am not sure the extent of the damage to the controls and other drive equipment on the lifts but due to the lack of easy access to the summit probably signifigantly hindered firefighting efforts.

[Lift Dinosaur]

Chair 5 - High Noon in the back bowls had the operator house torched, which caught the Drive Station on fire causing major damage and the need to splice in a section of haul rope.

Is "burning at the stake" still a form of judicial punishment?

This post has been edited by Lift Dinosaur: 15 December 2005 - 12:08 PM

[Emax]

Is "burning at the stake" still a form of judicial punishment?

Like "burning as a steak"? Seems appropriate.

[poloxskier]

Lift Dinosaur, on Dec 15 2005, 11:07 AM, said:

Chair 5 - High Noon in the back bowls had the operator house torched, which caught the Drive Station on fire causing major damage and the need to splice in a section of haul rope.

Is "burning at the stake" still a form of judicial punishment?

I just found the summit daily from the day after in the fire starter bin and the article said that chair 5's drive was destroyed but said that three other lifts were damaged. does anyone know what other damage was done to other lifts?

This post has been edited by poloxskier: 15 December 2005 - 01:17 PM

[ski_Lift_modeler]

great!

its good they show intrest in the environment, but stopping someone that owns land to do what they want with it is horrible, especially damadging their property.

im intrested to see what happens from this case.

[poloxskier]

ski_Lift_modeler, on Dec 15 2005, 12:44 PM, said:

great!

its good they show intrest in the environment, but stopping someone that owns land to do what they want with it is horrible, especially damadging their property.

im intrested to see what happens from this case.

Well technicaly Vail doesnt own the land. Its national forrest used under permit but they do own the all the structures on the mountain. One of the things that they were protesting was that vail was expanding into what was once a Lynx habitat but a lynx had not been seen in the area in 25 years. When they did try to do repopulation of the Lynx in the area most died since the environment could no longer suport a lynx population.

This post has been edited by poloxskier: 15 December 2005 - 01:52 PM

[vons]

The guy triied to torch Mountain top exp #4. and Northwoods exp. #11 both end by 5. I was living in Edwards at the time, it was an incredibly dry summer had there been any wind that night the arsonist could have started a huge forest fire. The most ridiculus part was between what burnt and what was needed to replace Two Elk, more board feet of wood was used then what was cut out of Cat 3 (blue sky basin).

Has anyone heard the term "gulfstreem enviormentalist"?

[Peter]

Here is a picture of Two Elk burning...

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[Emax]

"Has anyone heard the term "gulfstreem enviormentalist"?"

Michael Crichton: State of Fear

Taken to mean one notch deeper than a "limosine liberal."

[Kelly]

Second arson suspect detained -
From various AP reports

A federal agent on Friday named a second suspect in an arson at the Vail resort that stood for years as the most damaging act of eco-terrorism in the country.
It was the second suspect this week linked by a federal law enforcement official to the $12-million conflagration that has been cloaked in mystery for seven years.
FBI Special Agent Doug Linter testified in U.S. District Court in Flagstaff, Ariz., that investigators suspect Prescott, Ariz., bookstore owner Williams C. Rodgers in the Vail fire, as well as a number of other arson attacks.
On Tuesday, a prosecutor in Portland, Ore., said Chelsea Gerlach, 28, of Portland, was suspected in the Vail fire.
Seven fires erupted high on Vail Mountain on the night of Oct. 19, 1998, destroying the majestic Two Elk Lodge and ski-lift sites where the resort was in the process of expanding.
The Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group, e-mailed "a communique" to the ski operator three days after the fires, declaring that it torched the buildings as "just a warning" to protest Vail's expansion.

The group was unhappy the ski area was permitted to construct ski runs in lynx habitat. The lodge has been rebuilt and the expansion is now known as the Blue Sky Basin.
For five years the fires ranked as the costliest eco-terrorism in U.S. history.
The mystery endured even longer.
There are still no indicted suspects in the case and Gerlach's family said she has never been to Colorado, in an e-mail communication to the Rocky Mountain News.

The family says there is no basis to the charges that Gerlach acted as a lookout in the firebombing of a meat packing plant in Eugene, Ore., in 1999, and helped two other people set fires at a tree farm in Clatskanie, Ore., in 2001, as she is charged by federal proseuctors.
Rodgers was arrested last week on charges he was involved in the firebombing of a government wildlife lab outside Olympia, Wash.
FBI agent Linter said Rodgers is also suspected in arson attacks against the Vail ski resort, as well as wild horse corrals in Burns, Ore., and Rock Springs, Wyo., the University of Washington Urban Horticultural Center in Seattle and a federal plant research lab in Olympia, Wash.
Rodgers and Gerlach are among six suspected members of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, underground radical groups described by the FBI as domestic terrorists, who took responsibility for five attacks in Washington and Oregon between 1998 and 2001.
Targets included the offices of lumber mills in Glendale and Medford, Ore., a high-tension power line outside Bend, Ore., a car dealership, and meat processing plant in Eugene, Ore., and a federal plant research facility in Olympia, Wash.
In addition to the indictment against Gerlach, a federal grand jury in Eugene als indicted Kevin M. Tubbs, 36, of Springfield, Ore.
Tubbs was indicted on arson charges alleging he helped firebomb a auto dealership in Eugene, Ore., on March 30, 2001, destroying 35 sport utility vehicles and causing $1 million in damages. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
In the first physical evidence disclosed in the case, the inventory of a six-hour search of Rodgers' residence and bookstore listed boxes of suspected bomb-making materials such as timers and re-lighting birthday candles, three guns and two digital photos of nude, prepubescent girls stored on a compact disc.
Linter also reported a recorded conversation where Rodgers told an unknown acquaintance that he was "planning something big" involving some kind of arson after the end of his relationship with his girlfriend, Katie Nelson.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Lodge said in court that Sarah Kendall Harvey, also known as Kendall Tankersley, 28, of Flagstaff, Ariz., acted as the lookout for a fire set in 1998 at the offices of a now-defunct U.S. Forest Industries mill in Medford, Ore., for which she has been indicted. He added she is a suspect in other arsons in Humboldt County, Calif., where she was a college student, and was a member of the Earth Liberation Front.
A federal judge ordered Harvey held pending further proceedings in Oregon. An employee at Northern Arizona University, she has applied for medical school at the University of Arizona.
Tubbs and Gerlach were scheduled to be arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Ore., on the new indictments. Stanislas Meyerhoff, 28, of Charlottesville, Va., who attended high school in Eugene with Gerlach and was indicted earlier in the tree farm firebombing and two other cases, was to appear for a status hearing.
Gerlach was held in Eugene on an indictment she helped topple a Bonneville Power Administration electrical transmission tower Dec. 30, 1999.
Federal defender Craig Weinerman, representing Gerlach, complained that authorities were accusing her of other firebombings without presenting any evidence, other than statements from unnamed informants facing possible prison terms for their own involvement.
"Someone is pointing the finger at her who was far more involved in this, and potentially has a motive to help himself or herself get less time," Weinerman said.
In her letter to news media, Gerlach's sister Shasta Kearns Moore, said Gerlach was concerned about the environment, but believed only in peaceful action.
"As a family we are both disturbed and baffled by the charges brought against her," the statement read. "The person we know and love is incapable of such acts."
Also on Friday, a Canadian animal-rights militant who was arrested with Gerlach pleaded not guilty in federal court in Portland to immigration charges.
Darren Thurston, 35, was indicted on a charge of possessing two phony documents - a green card, which allows permanent residence, and a Social Security card both bearing the name Kevin Gregory Barske.
Judge Donald Ashmanaskas set a trial date for Feb. 14 and ordered Thurston held as a flight risk.

[coskibum]

the sourdough lift also had damage to it, its upper lift shack was burnt down, which was right next to camp 1. camp 1 was a warming hut used for people that had packed lunches.

[liftmech]

I have to agree with the guys from Colorado Wild, who are also quite involved with ski areas and environmental issues. However opposed to development you are, it doesn't justify crimes and destruction of private property.