Ground Truth: Forest Service Research · Episode 9 of 10 · 39 min
Measuring Trees at Gunpoint
On an August afternoon in 1976, two Forest Service research workers collecting tree-growth data in Idaho's Nez Perce National Forest were ordered off the land at gunpoint by members of the Patrin family. The federal assault case collapsed two years later on a jurisdictional technicality. The episode uses it, as the host lived it, to examine a longer pattern of threats and violence against people who do forest science in the field.
Who's who
- Guy PenceForest Service district ranger in Nevada targeted by 1995 pipe bombs
- Zoe NemereverPolitical scientist who linked constitutionalist sheriffs to anti-federal violence
- Ray McNichols+2 more episodesFederal judge who presided at the 1977 trial
Where it happens
- Nez Perce National Forest, Idaho+4 more episodesSite of the 1976 confrontation over a tree-growth plot
- Elk City, Idaho+5 more episodesMining area where the Posse Comitatus organized
- Moscow, Idaho+6 more episodesTrial venue and home of the Forest Service research lab
- Carson City, Nevada+1 more episodeWhere a 1995 pipe bomb destroyed a ranger's office
Timeline
- October 1972Elk City miners organize the Idaho County Posse Comitatus
- August 27, 1976Armed Patrin family members confront two research workers
- March 1977Jury trial in Moscow reduces the charge to simple assault
- April 20, 1978Ninth Circuit reverses convictions in United States v. Patrin
- 1995Pipe bombs target Forest Service ranger Guy Pence in Nevada
- 2019Study finds roughly twice the violence where a constitutionalist sheriff serves
Still debated
Accounts differ on intent that day, since the workers said they were threatened while the Patrins said they were identifying intruders on their claim. Whose land the plot was on was never resolved, and reported harassment likely undercounts the real total.
← PreviousHow Restructuring Built the Modern Forest Service Research NetworkNext →Dismantling a Century of Forest Science
Connected episodes in other series
The Law in Their Heads: Elk City, 1976Free and Open: The 1872 Mining Law · Episode 3
Why Armed Idaho Miners Walked Free: The Patrin Case & a Federal LoopholePower of the County · Episode 1Also features Ray McNichols
Weighing a ForestThe Price of a Tonne · Episode 6
The BargainThe Restoration Bargain · Episode 12