EID-O's Shawn discusses the group "Earth First"'s venture into Ohio and some of their past "activities":

"As shale development continues to provide great opportunities for Ohioans, it is also gaining popularity with self-described radical environmental organizations.  This can be noticed it what seems to be a benign tree-climbing-activist camp outside of Athens hosted by the group Earth First! However, if one digs a bit deeper they can find the Earth First! Climber’s Guild has ties to a deeper, less-than-noble agenda.

The climbing camp – to be held from September 22^nd-28^{th -} will help provide activists with the climbing skills needed to temporarily disrupt shale development by, you guessed it – climbing trees.  At this camp, activists will train to rope off roadways to not allow trucks to pass, display banners, live in these trees if needed, and perhaps do all of this without falling and hurting themselves.

While some think they may just be climbing trees for a week (and let’s face it that sounds pretty fun), this is not a wholesome, run of the mill organization. Earth First! has been around for over 30 years, with a mission statement of “No Compromise in the Defense of Mother Earth!” and employs tactics that encourage destruction and put people’s lives in danger.

They describe themselves on their website as such:

Earth First! takes a decidedly different tack towards environmental issues. We believe in using all the tools in the tool box, ranging from grassroots organizing and involvement in the legal process to civil disobedience and monkeywrenching.

According to their website, monkeywrenching is defined as follows:

Monkeywrenching: Ecotage, ecodefense, billboard bandits, desurveying, road reclamation, tree spiking, even fire. All of these terms describe the unlawful sabotage of industrial extraction and development equipment, as a means of striking at the Earth’s destroyers where they commit their crimes and hitting them where they feel it most—in their profit margins. (emphasis added)

At a glance, one may think this group must have had their website hacked and has just been too busy to fix such outrageous claims.  But with a quick internet search I found a couple more quotes from their founders that support the illegal activity."

READ THE REST: http://www.eidohio.org/earth-first-climbing-into-ohios-forests/