Earth First! is a radical and often controversial environmental group founded in 1979 in response to what Dave Foreman and other founders believed to be the increasing co-optation of the environmental movement. For Earth First! members, too much of the environmental movement has become lethargic, compromising, and corporate in its orientation. To avoid a similar fate, Earth First! members have restricted their use of traditional fund-raising techniques and have sought a non-hierarchical organization with neither a professional staff nor formal leadership.

A movement established by and for self-acknowledged environmental hardliners, Earth First!'s general stance is reflected in its slogan, "No compromise in the defense of Mother Earth." Its policy positions are based upon principles of deep ecology and in particular on the group's belief in the intrinsic value of all natural things. Its goals include preserving all remaining wilderness, ending environmental degradation of all kinds, eliminating...