Threats, violence rising for federal resource employees, report says

John Hughes

Thursday, Sept. 2, 1999 | 4:41 a.m.

WASHINGTON - Patti Rodgers remembers the dark, early morning in 1996 when she watched a ranger station in the Willamette National Forest burn to the ground.

The arson changed the way she thinks about dangers she faces on the job.

"I try to pay closer attention to where I am and who else is there," said Rodgers, a spokeswoman at the Oregon forest. "We're all more sensitive."

Employees at two federal land agencies have good reason to be more cautious, according to a report released Thursday by a public employee group.

Threats, violence and vandalism directed at Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management employees and buildings rose for the third consecutive year in 1998, the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said.

Forest Service workers reported 53 threats or troublesome events last year, up from 34 in 1995, the first year the group kept track of such problems.

BLM officials reported 42 threats or attacks, up from eight in 1995.

Most of the reports came from the West, where the vast share of public lands are located.

A Forest Service employee in Nevada was threatened for not approving a permit, a Forest Service worker in New Mexico was pushed by someone who was mad about new fees, and a pipe bomb went off in the bathroom of a BLM building near Boise, Idaho.

As populations grow, and communities press up against the boundaries of federal lands, problems formerly thought to exist in cities are becoming more common in parks and forests, federal officials said.

Some cautioned, however, that crime on federal lands is still rare, and that reporting of problems - not crimes themselves - may be what is on the rise.

The Oklahoma City bombing and other high-profile violent acts on federal lands heightened the awareness of federal employees and prompted them to do a better job of reporting crimes, said Michael Pendleton, a University of Washington researcher who has studied crime in parks and forests.

Employees said security precautions have become more common at federal land sites, including name badges and security cameras.

Ever since a bomb went off in 1993 on the roof of a BLM office in Reno, Nev., Maxine Shane has kept a list on her desk of questions to ask if she receives a bomb threat.

"I don't live my life in fear, I'm just cautious," Shane said.

But the agencies are limited in what they can do.

The BLM, the nation's largest land public land manager, has just 200 law enforcement officers to cover 264 million acres.

Even so, agencies haven't done enough to protect workers, said Rob Perks, national field director for the employee group.

He blamed the Justice Department for not collecting data on violence against federal government employees as required under the 1996 Anti-Terrorism Act, passed in the aftermath of the Oklahoma bombing.

If the government had better data, they could help prepare and train employees to prevent problems, Perks said.

John Russell, a Justice Department spokesman, said his agency has asked Congress to repeal the data collection requirement because agencies keep inconsistent records and the Justice Department lacks personnel for the collections.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility gathered the data for its report Thursday by requesting employee-reported threats and violence in five federal resources agencies through the Freedom of Information Act.

While the Forest Service and BLM responded completely, the group is still trying to collect data from the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Army Corps of Engineers.

The nonprofit group, founded in 1992 and based in the nation's capital, claims 10,000 members, who are state and federal resource agency employees.