Small-Time Terrorists Specialize in Nuisance Crimes. (On First Reading).

Fires at new houses, U.S. Forest Service offices, ski resorts and car dealerships. The "freeing" of mink and monkeys from ranches and labs, turning the animals loose into the countryside. Trampling research crops.

All of these are examples of ecoterrorism. Incidents once relegated to the Pacific Northwest now have occurred in Arizona, Kentucky, Minnesota, Michigan and New York.

Ecoterrorism or ecosabotage is any crime committed in the name of saving nature." It used to be just mink farmers and logging companies," says FBI spokesperson Beth Anne Steele, "but the target industries are expanding. Now it's tree farms, research facilities, housing development, anything to do with animals."

"We have what I would describe as a new criminal element. This is a new and burgeoning area of criminal activity, and law enforcement is just now beginning to catch up," says Oregon Representative Lane Shetterly.

Through his sponsorship, the Oregon legislature has passed a law that expands the crimes under the state's racketeering law to include those against the logging industry, agriculture and animal research on the grounds that ecoterrorists commit their crimes repeatedly.

"What we have seen over the past five or six years is that these acts of ecosabotage are not being committed by individuals who happen to have a passion for a cause," says Shetterly. "These are highly organized groups."

Other states are passing legislation to increase the penalties for domestic terrorism from "criminal mischief" misdemeanors to felonies carrying years of incarceration.

Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin have followed California's lead and passed legislation addressing crop vandalism and have increased the financial penalties to include the costs of research and development.