PARK SERVICE REPORTS SURGE IN VIOLENCE AGAINST RANGERS

Attacks, Threats and Fights Increase More Than Fivefold

It is getting more dangerous to be a forest ranger -- and it is not
because of the animals.

Attacks, threats and lesser fights 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 and verbal abuse.

The agency tally shows 477 such reports in 2005, compared with 88
logged 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 in 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 trying to confiscate
a marijuana plantation in California's Angeles National Forest. Two
loaded shotguns and more than 78 kilograms of processed marijuana were seized.

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 some of the blame for
the growing violence in the woods is due to 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 had
likely 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.
They say they suspect public lands have become more popular for
marijuana gardens because of the vast remote areas patrolled only
intermittently by law enforcement personnel.

Rey said, however, that the group's 2004 report unfairly manipulated
Forest Service data to make a political point and that it was
unfortunate the report seemed to be pitting one kind of forest user
against another.

"It doesn't assist law enforcement. It complicates it by singling one
group out. That's unfair," Rey said. "Most of the assaults in 2004
were as a result of encounters with drunks, drug users or deranged
environmental protesters."

Don Amador, Western representative of the BlueRibbon Coalition, an
Idaho-based group that advocates motorized recreation, took umbrage
at what he described as an absurd report. "To try to lump off-roaders
with drug dealers and other ne'er-do-wells is just ridiculous," he said.

Most all-terrain vehicle riders are responsible and use designated
trails, Amador said, adding that there is no evidence that
off-roaders are more violent than any other group that uses national forests.

The only increase in crime in national forests he has seen is the
growing presence of pot farmers. "That's my biggest concern. It's a
serious issue, and it needs to be addressed," Amador said.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility also warned about a
steady decline in Forest Service security officers, which the group
said is endangering employees and the public. Last year, the group
said, there were about 660 rangers, investigators and special agents
in the nation's 155 national forests and 20 grasslands -- down by
nearly one-third from 1993.

The figure translates into one position for every 291,000 acres of
forest land in the 192 million acre forest system.

The Forest Service spends less than 2 percent of its total budget on
law enforcement, a figure that is lower than other federal land
management agencies such as the National Park Service or the Bureau
of Land Management, the group said.

Rey said the Forest Service requested a $12 million increase for law
enforcement in the budget year that begins Oct. 1, a recognition of
the increased crime in national forests.