Arsonists recently destroyed the offices and much of the research work of nine faculty and 40 graduate students housed at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture. The apparent intent of this purposeful damage was to "scare" people into stopping research and silencing open scientific discussion about topics that small groups of people do not support. There are two problems with these terrorist actions. First, trying to stop informed discussion using such scare tactics relegates us to a kind of society where the ends justify the means and brutishness can be employed to control thought, differences of opinion, or differences of any kind. Second, carrying out such damaging actions in the name of an environmental ethic that reveres nature and yet fails to recognize the role of people and science in restoring and healing the land is misguided at best.

 The Center for Urban Horticulture has made and continues to make a huge contribution to our understanding of ecological restoration. It provides an important setting where people come together to pool their knowledge and experience about how to work with nature and natural processes to restore damaged ecosystems. The Center for Urban Horticulture supports scientific research and academic education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. It also provides a unique function to the greater community by providing unparalleled library resources and technical workshops directed at wide-ranging topics related to the establishment of healthy natural systems. It is with profound appreciation for the existence of the Center and deepest sorrow at the losses suffered from the fire that the Society for Ecological Restoration Northwest and our parent organization, the Society for Ecological Restoration, extend support to the students and faculty to pick up and begin anew. We encourage all peoples working with the environment to speak out against and publicly condemn such senseless acts of violence.

 - STEVE MODDEMEYER, president Society for Ecological Restoration, NW Chapter and STEVE GATEWOOD, executive director Society for Ecological Restoration