ATTACKS ON NATION'S RANGERS REACHED HIGH IN 2005

From Insults To Assaults, Visitors Carried Out Almost 500 Acts Of
Aggression On Forest Service Workers Last Year, Records Show

WASHINGTON - For the nation's forest rangers, the serenity of the
woods increasingly is giving way to confrontations with unruly visitors.

Attacks, threats and lesser altercations involving Forest Service
workers reached an all-time high last year, according to government
documents obtained by a public employees advocacy group. Incidents
ranged from gunshots to stalking to verbal abuse.

The agency tally shows 477 such reports in 2005, compared with 88 a
year earlier. The total in 2003 was 104; in 1995, it was 34.

Among the more serious incidents, a Forest Service worker was run
down by a man on a snowmobile in California's Lake Tahoe Basin
Management Area. The man pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon.

Also, Forest Service workers were shot at while confiscating
marijuana in Angeles National Forest in California.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility obtained the
documents through a Freedom of Information Act request and provided
them to the Associated Press.

The nonprofit environmental advocacy group said the government's
methods for collecting the data have not changed over the years. It
said some of the blame for the growing violence in the woods is
because of greater access to remote lands and waterways by motorized equipment.

"Things like off-road vehicles are taking people into the backcountry
to get away from all rules of civilization, and trouble appears to be
ensuing," said the group's executive director, Jeff Ruch.

Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service,
did not disagree entirely with that assessment. He said that although
he had not seen the report and could not confirm its accuracy, it was
true that a huge increase in the use of off-highway vehicles (OHV)
had probably contributed to a rise in the number of assaults.

"It doesn't mean the policy is bad or OHV users are bad people," he said.

Forest Service officials also put some of the blame for the growing
violence on increasing border enforcement and drug-related activity.