Man accused of tree spiking to get hearing

Frank Ambrose -- the 26-year-old Bloomington environmentalist accused of tree spiking -- will have a preliminary hearing at 1 p.m. today in the Monroe Circuit Court. His first court appearance will be protested by a variety of local activists who maintain his innocence.\nTimber-spiking, or putting nails in trees to prevent logging, is a felony in Indiana punishable by up to three years in jail and a $10,000 fine. Not always noticed, the nails can cause serious harm -- even death -- to loggers cutting down the trees.\nThe Indiana Department of Natural Resources arrested Ambrose Jan. 25, alleging he participated in a June tree spiking in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest that was linked to the Earth Liberation Front.\nAmbrose denies committing the crime or knowing who did.\n"I am only guilty of being outspoken about the issue of logging on our public lands," he said in a statement faxed to the media last Thursday. He has since declined to comment.\nELF, a loose-knit ecoterrorist group that has claimed responsibility for more than $39 million of property damage nationwide, committed five acts of vandalism in the Bloomington area last year. In addition to the tree spiking incident, the group damaged heavy logging equipment and burned down a luxury home under construction in the Sterling Woods development on the west side of town.\nLeaving authorities without leads and communicating through Oregon-based spokesman Craig Rosebraugh, ELF primarily targets logging and urban sprawl. Most recently, it set fire to lumber company offices in Oregon.\nFBI agent Doug Garrison said it has been hard to track suspects because ELF is an acronym used by individuals to identify vandalism as a political statement rather than an organization.\nDNR officer Marlin Dodge, who oversaw the case, said linking Ambrose to the crime was relatively easy, although it took authorities more than six months. A state official, Dodge said, saw a car blocking off a logging path and took down the license plate number, which Dodge said he traced to Ambrose.\nAnd Dodge said loggers found a box of 10-inch Grip-Rite spiral-shank nails June 26, where trees has been marked for logging. The nails, Dodge said, were later found in 17 trees in the area with their heads removed, making them impossible to take out.\nDodge said he found that only one store in the area, Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, carries that brand of nails. \n"They're very peculiar nails that I've never seen before," he said. "It made it easy for me to track them down."\nHe said he then reviewed the store's security tape, which he said shows a man resembling Ambrose purchasing that type of nails. \nWitnesses both at the scene of the crime and familiar with Ambrose identified him after viewing the tape, Dodge said. \nAnd Dodge said a police raid of Ambrose's home last fall turned up cotton gloves and spray paint, which he said had been used to scrawl "ELF" on some of the trees.\nInvestigators believe the crime couldn't have been committed by one man.\n"He couldn't have (done) it all by himself," said Dodge, who declined to comment on whether there are any other suspects.\nFriends and fellow activists describe Ambrose as "mild-mannered" and said they believe he is innocent.\n"He's being targeted because of his outspoken stance of being pro-environment," said fellow activist David Agranoff, who is organizing the noon protest outside the Justice Building, where the hearing will take place. "He has worked for years in Bloomington, and now he's being slandered."\nAgranoff said police needed to charge someone with the crime. \n"They need a scapegoat so they can look good," he said.\nOther local environmentalist said they don't know enough to reach a conclusion, but don't like the bad press the ecoterrorist activities have generated.\n"I think things have been much harder for us," said gradate student Joshua Martin, who has been involved in a variety of environmental causes. "Those of us that work within the system can't get away from it"