Foreman, Dave, et al., eds., Earth First 1, no. 1 (1 November 1980). Republished by the Environment & Society Portal, Multimedia Library. http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/5251.
Disillusioned with the moderate conservation movement, David Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, Bart Koehler, and Ron Kezar founded the radical wilderness preservation organization Earth First! (EF!) in 1980. In this inaugural issue of its journal, the group announces its principles, platform, and organizational structure. EF! describes itself as “pure, hard-line, radical,” and advocates supplementing lobbying practices with more direct tactics such as “demonstrations” and “confrontations.” In addition to supporting traditional conservation, EF! calls for the re-creation of wilderness through the construction of a national system of ecological preserves in which dams, roads, and other traces of human activity will be removed.
It’s time to be tough, […] It’s time to fight for the Earth first.
— Earth First!
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- Abbey, Edward. The Monkey Wrench Gang. New York: Lippincott, 1975.
- Foreman, Dave. Confessions of an Eco-Warrior. New York: Harmony Books, 1991.
- Lee, Martha. Earth First!: Environmental Apocalypse. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1995.
- Manes, Christopher. Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization. Boston: Little, Brown, 1990.