Fire on the Mountain: The Vail Arsons and the Environmental Costs of Tourism

In October 1998, two members of the extremist environmental group known as the Earth Liberation Front set fire to a dozen structures on top of Vail Ski Resort, Colorado. The most notorious act of “eco-terrorism” in American history, the ELF conducted the arsons in protest of the ski resort’s controversial 885 acre expansion into what many considered the prime habitat of the endangered lynx. Critics of the planned expansion argued Vail placed its own profits ahead of the environment and considered the development of public land for private gain was wholly unacceptable. Once seen as preferable over traditional extractive industries such as timber and ranching, in the late twentieth century environmentalists increasingly attacked recreational industries including skiing for its corrosive impacts on the environment. Recreation differed from traditional extractive industries in that it placed a higher priority on the preservation of landscapes. However, while recreation placed a premium on the beauty of natural landscapes, it remained economically linked to the exploitation of those landscapes. As recreational industries grew, they led to greater levels of residential development and an increased footprint on the natural environment. The story of the Vail Arsons demonstrates the growing contention over the environmental costs of recreation at the end of the twentieth century and changing economic and cultural realities such contentions brought.