DANGER RISING FOR FEDERAL LAND OFFICERS, GROUP SAYS

WASHINGTON (AP) - Patrolling federal lands is becoming more and more
dangerous, a group tracking attacks on the officers said Wednesday, citing
two park rangers killed in the line of duty in 2002 and an overall increase
in threats and violence.

A list of incidents last year includes a park ranger killed along the
Mexican border, officers who were shot at by a marijuana farmer, a run-in
with a chainsaw-wielding tree poacher, and a slew of threats and intimidation.

"These aren't just low-level arguments that escalated. These are people who
are willing to enact pretty hard-core violence," said Eric Wingerter,
national field director for the group Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility.

"A number of these incidents stem from a growing, simmering anti-government
sentiment that is particularly growing in the West," he said.

The statistics and anecdotal evidence compiled by the group show an
increase in acts of violence and intimidation in three federal land
agencies - the Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land
Management.

In the national parks, attacks against rangers declined slightly from the
2001 levels, although PEER thinks that may reflect inadequate reporting.

An accurate comparison is impossible, the group concedes, because the
federal agencies have no uniform reporting system and the Justice
Department, which is supposed to track the figures, does not.

As a result, PEER had to file open records requests with each agency, and
in some cases with each regional office, to obtain the information.

The lack of uniform reporting was among the criticisms leveled in a report
last year by Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney. The report
said drastic changes were needed in the department's law enforcement
operation, and Devaney told Congress in January that the department was not
moving with an appropriate sense of urgency.

Interior Department spokesman Mark Pfeifle said the department is
increasing its emphasis on law enforcement, providing intensive training on
how to deal with dangerous situations and putting more officers in its most
dangerous areas.

"We've doubled the number of officers on the southern border. We've asked
for and received several million dollars in each of the last couple fiscal
years to focus on officer safety, communication equipment upgrades and
training," Pfeifle said.

Randall Kendrick, executive director of the U.S. Park Ranger Lodge of the
Fraternal Order of Police, which represents park rangers, said rangers are
still being sent into the field with inadequate equipment or backup, but
things are getting better.

In 2002, park ranger Kris Eggle was shot to death at Organ Pipe Cactus
National Monument along the Mexican border while trying to help apprehend a
pair of murder suspects who had fled across the border.

A day later, U.S. Park Police officer Hakim Farthing was killed by a
drunken driver on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

Other acts against the federal law enforcement officials include:

A wildlife officer in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in the
Pacific Northwest was trying to stop three people who had reportedly been
cutting down old-growth trees. One suspect brandished a running chain saw
and threatened the officer. He was subdued with pepper spray and arrested.

A shot was fired at officers in Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas as
they inspected a marijuana patch. They returned later with a search
warrant. The suspect committed suicide 11 days later.