Nearly seven years after an arson caused about $1.5 million in damages to UW’s Center for Urban Horticulture, Briana Waters, 32, will be facing trial on Feb. 11 for her alleged participation in the attack.

Federal prosecutors said Waters was a part of the five-person Earth Liberation Front (ELF) team that set fire to professor Toby Bradshaw’s office on May 21, 2001, according to a Jan. 21 article from The Seattle Times (“Arson suspect facing trial”).

“Ms. Waters naturally has very little recollection of exactly what she was doing in the early morning hours of May 21, 2001,” said her attorneys Robert Bloom and Neil Fox, in a statement to the Times. “She is, however, certain that one thing she did not do is participate in the arson at the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture.”

Waters’ trial will be the first of the 18 men and women accused of being involved in the series of attacks that caused tens of millions of dollars in damages to institutions they believe to be threats to the environment and animals.

Bradshaw’s research on genetically modifying poplar trees was seen as an “ecological nightmare” for the biodiversity of native forests, according to an ELF news release.

The arson attack set back research at the center a number of years, said Norm Arkans, executive director of media relations for the UW.

“It was a horrible event that destroyed a number of people’s work,” he said. “It was misdirected because the people who were involved [at the center] were eco-friendly.”

Rebuilding the facility cost $7 million, which did not offset the damage done to research or the destruction of several endangered plants.

“It was from our perspective a type of violence that is not effective,” Arkans said. “It was a serious act of eco-terrorism and it was not the best way to make a point.”

The U.S. Justice Department labeled the ELF as the top domestic terror group in 2001.

If Waters is convicted on charges of conspiracy, arson and the use of a destructive device in a crime of violence, she will face a prison sentence of 35 years.

However, if defense attorneys are able to succeed in challenging the prosecutors’ use of the term firebomb to describe the timed devices and buckets of fuel that caused the fire, then Waters could face only five years in prison.

The use of a destructive device in a crime of violence carries a minimum sentence of 30 years, while arson charges have a mandatory sentence of five years.

Since 1996, ELF and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) have started arsons at a U.S. Forest Service office, a ski lodge in Vail, Colo., a slaughterhouse in Oregon, a Eugene car dealership and a federal agriculture research center in Olympia.

Water’s refusal to accept a plea deal has put her in the position of potentially receiving the harshest punishment of anyone sentenced thus far. Twelve others have reached plea agreements, landing sentences ranging from probation to 13 years.

[Reach reporter Kim Lee at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]