Activist arrested for tree spiking

A long-time Bloomington environmental activist was arrested Thursday and faces preliminary charges of timber spiking. \nState officials accuse Owen County resident Frank B. Ambrose, 26, of spiking trees -- driving metal spikes into them to prevent logging -- in a state forest last June. The eco-terrorist group Earth Liberation Front took credit for the incident. \nELF has claimed responsibility for more than $37 million in property damage, including five acts of vandalism in Monroe County. The FBI has been unable to trace anyone associated with the loose-knit, underground group, said Special Agent Doug Garrison.\nOfficers from the Department of Natural Resources arrested Ambrose at about 10 a.m. Thursday while he was working at Secret Sailor Bookshop, 202 N. Walnut Ave. He was released later that afternoon on $2,000 surety and $500 cash bond, said Sgt. George Trippenay of the Monroe County Correctional Center. \nTrippenay said Ambrose will appear in court Feb. 2. Timber spiking is a Class D felony carrying a penalty of up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine. \nSpiking can be lethal to loggers if they hit the spikes with a saw. Charges of attempted manslaughter can be filed in some states, but not in Indiana. \nDNR Officer Marlin Dodge said a state employee saw a car in the forest on the day the trees were spiked and recorded the license plate. He said Ambrose owned the car.\nDodge, who is overseeing the case, said officers tracked the nails used in the spiking to Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, where security cameras recorded Ambrose buying the same type of nails.\nWhile he said he believes Ambrose is connected to the group, Dodge said it would be hard to prove.\n"You can never tell who an ELF (member) is," he said. "However, we're prepared to show he committed a criminal act the ELF took credit for." \nCraig Rosenbraugh, the Oregon-based spokesman for the group, did not respond to messages left at the bakery where he works.\nAmbrose faxed a statement to the media after he was released from jail Thursday.\n"I want to assure people of my innocence," Ambrose said in the statement. "I am only guilty of being outspoken about the issue of logging on our public lands. Although I have publicly supported groups that have at times engaged in clandestine campaigns."\nEarlier in the year, Ambrose participated in a lockdown in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest headquarters protesting the logging, which state officials say is necessary for forest maintenance.\n"Private lands can provide more than enough timber to meet consumer demands," Ambrose told the IDS at the time. "Public lands need to be protected; they belong to all of us."\nA resident of Owen County, Ambrose was involved in protests against a planned golf course near Griffy Lake in Bloomington and the proposed extension of Interstate-69.\nELF took credit for several criminal acts in Monroe County last year, including the arson of a home under construction in the Sterling Woods subdivision, the destruction of heavy logging equipment and setting fire to the Monroe County Republican headquarters. \nMost recently, it took credit for burning down three partly built homes in New York and lumber company offices in Oregon.\nAmbrose formerly served as receptionist for the Indiana Forest Alliance.\n"We are concerned for him," said Mike Englert, another environmental activist. "We really enjoyed having him around"