Editing Earth First! (section)

=== Cove-Mallard Timber ===
Between 1992 and 1998 took place the largest timber sale in [[United States Forest Service]] history, the Cove-Mallard timber sale of 6,000 acres in [[Idaho]] near the [[Nez Perce National Forest]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=Ashton|first=Linda|date=1995-01-01|title='Unwelcome Mat' Is Out for Earth Firsters in Some Idaho Towns : Environment: The negative mood is one of the legacies of a persistent campaign to keep saws and bulldozers out of a 6,000-acre timber sale area on national forest land.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-01-me-15242-story.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-04-17|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126064005/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-01-me-15242-story.html |archive-date=2020-11-26 }}</ref> The group of EarthFirst activists focused on this area were called the "Cove-Mallard Coalition".<ref name=":3" />

With the aid of a nearby landowner, a former land developer turned activist, Earth First occupied the forest. As a result, Earth First succeeded in saving most of the threatened wilderness area. Over 350 people from 12 countries were arrested and the project was reduced from its initial plan of 200 clear-cuts and the construction of seven new roads, to 37 clear-cuts and two new roads.
In June 1993, Earth First halted the construction of the Noble Road by erecting elaborate multi-layered barricades, which included U.S. Forest Service vehicles. These barricades were constructed in one night, during which activists traveled 17 miles through the mountains dodging law enforcement patrols who had been informed of the planned demonstration. The first tripod lockdowns occurred at this incident, which involved three 30 foot logs, tied together and placed upright, with an activist tied to a platform between them 20 feet in the air.<ref name="hcn.org">{{cite web|last=Freeman|first=Ross|date=March 6, 1995|title=Logging protesters say they won't give up|url=http://www.hcn.org/issues/30/857|url-status=live|work=hcn.org|publisher=High Country News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924025338/http://www.hcn.org/issues/30/857 |archive-date=2015-09-24 }}</ref> The tripod was placed over trenches in which four activists were buried in quick-drying cement. Two additional activists used U-locks to lock their necks to the front axles of responding vehicles. U.S. Forest Service shot at activists and raided the land with a SWAT team armed with M-16s.<ref>{{cite web|last=Olsen|first=Ken|date=March 1, 1994|title=Earth First!ers experience Idaho-style justice|url=http://www.hcn.org/issues/6/166|url-status=live|work=hcn.org|publisher=High Country News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402153346/http://www.hcn.org/issues/6/166 |archive-date=2015-04-02 }}</ref> 27 activists were arrested.

[[William C. Rodgers|William "Avalon" Rodgers]], a member of the Earth Liberation Front, who alongside the rest of his ELF group was also arrested and were serving life sentences in federal prison for crimes that involved property damage.<ref>{{cite web|title=Earth Liberation Front|url=http://www.targetofopportunity.com/elf.htm|work=targetofopportunity.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Bernton|first=Hal|date=January 21, 2006|title=Prosecutors portray close-knit arson team|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20060121&slug=ecoindictments21m|url-status=live|access-date=2021-04-17|website=archive.seattletimes.com|publisher=The Seattle Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417152053/https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20060121&slug=ecoindictments21m |archive-date=2021-04-17 }}</ref> Rodgers was a long term Earth First activist, and one of the occupation activists of Free Cascadia/Warner Creek Oregon and the Cove/Mallard Idaho protests for years and one of four who constantly camped out in snow-caves monitoring the only logging of Noble Road in the winter of January to March 1995 in 12-foot deep snow and sub-zero temps.<ref>TreeHuggers: Victory, Defeat & Renewal in the Northwest Ancient Forest Campaign. by Kathie Durbin. The Mountaineers Press Seattle. p270.</ref>