BOISE -- Members of the environmental group Earth First! failed to persuade the Idaho Supreme Court to overturn assessed penalties or order a new trial over their role in destructive protests in the Nez Perce National Forest.
In the early 1990s, Highland Enterprises contracted with Shearer Lumber to build logging roads near Dixie as part of the Cove-Mallard-area timber the Forest Service sold to Shearer. Meanwhile, the environmentalists were planning "monkeywrenching" actions against the logging and road work, court records said.Workers and Forest Service employees later testified they found spikes driven into trees to destroy saws, construction equipment was damaged, survey stakes were stolen and slash timber was piled in the road.
Despite a forest closure, members of Earth First! were arrested for such things as sitting in wooden tripods to halt equipment, burying themselves in the road or chaining themselves to gates or vehicles.
In 1993, Highland sued a number of entities including 200 "Jane and John Does," accusing them of such things as trespassing and destruction of property. A 1996 jury trial found the defendants were liable to Highland for a total of $150,000 in compensatory damages and nearly $1 million in punitive damages.
The defendants included Billy Jo Barker, Robert Borden, Heather Briggs, Lawrence Juniper, John Kreilick, Peggy Sue McRae, Karen Pickett, Jennifer Lynn Prichard, Peter Leusch, Erik Ryberg, Michael Vernon and Dana Wright.
In 1997, the trial court denied their motion for a new trial.
In the latest ruling, the justices said there was ample evidence that the environmentalists knew about Highland's opportunity for financial profit from the project and actively interfered.
"The appellants consistently delayed Highland's work through malicious and outrageous conduct," the court wrote.