Judi Bari

Judith Beatrice Bari (November 7, 1949 – March 2, 1997) was an American environmentalist, feminist, and labor leader, primarily active in Northern California after moving to the state in the mid-1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was the principal organizer of Earth First! campaigns against logging in the ancient redwood forests of Mendocino County and related areas. She also organized Industrial Workers of the World Local 1 in an effort to bring together timber workers and environmentalists of Earth First! in common cause.

Bari suffered severe injuries on 24 May 1990 in Oakland, California, when a pipe bomb went off under her seat in her car. She was driving with colleague Darryl Cherney, who had minor injuries. They were arrested by Oakland Police, aided by the FBI, who accused them of transporting a bomb for terrorist purposes. While those charges were dropped, in 1991 the pair filed suit against the Oakland Police Department and FBI for violations of their civil rights during the investigation of the bombing. A jury found in their favor when the case went to trial in 2002, and damages were awarded to Bari's estate and Cherney. Bari had died of cancer in 1997. The bombing has not been solved.

In 1999 a bill was passed to establish the Headwaters Forest Reserve (H.R. 2107, Title V. Sec.501.) under administration by the Bureau of Land Management. This protected 7,472 acres (30.24 km2) of mixed old-growth and previously harvested forest. It was a project that Bari had long supported. A critical biography of Bari titled The Secret Wars of Judi Bari (2005), by investigative journalist Kate Coleman, drew fierce criticism by many supporters. But a review in Environmental History said that the author "succeeds in offering a balanced view of her life."Cherney, managers of Bari's estate (for her portion of the FBI settlement award), Bari's ex-husband Michael Sweeney, a suspect in the bombing; and their followers, claimed the book had hundreds of factual errors and expressed a bias against Bari and Earth First! These critics noted that the publisher, Encounter Books, was founded by arch-conservative Peter Collier. They said it was funded primarily by arch-conservative foundations not sympathetic to Bari's causes. Author Coleman said that such allegations and the aspersions cast on the publisher, were being used as a smokescreen. She said the book's detractors were dedicated to preserving an incomplete and distorted memory of Ms. Bari.Cherney and some other critics said that Coleman had failed to include more information from their points of view. The author said that they had not responded to her attempts to contact them.

In her book, Coleman outlined a case that Sweeney, Bari's ex-husband, had planted the bomb in order to kill her. This thesis had been suggested by others, namely Stephen Talbot, in his 1991 documentary, and more specifically in his 2002 article on Salon.com, in which he revealed statements that Bari had made to him in 1991. He felt her death lifted his responsibility to protect her confidences.

Mark Hertsgaard wrote a critical review in the Los Angeles Times entitled, "'Too many rumors, too few facts to examine eco-activism case". He said, "the reporting is thin and sloppy, and the humdrum prose is marred by dubious speculation." Ed Guthmann, in a review in the San Francisco Chronicle, criticized Hertsgaard's review for containing its own errors.