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Originally published on

Smokey the Bear thought he smelled a fire in the woods. But as he approached the clearing and saw a giant derrick jutting out into the sky, he realized that what his nose had picked up was the scent of hydrocarbons. It was another piece of evidence suggesting that the increasingly widespread method of oil and gas extraction known as fracking was poisoning the environment. He decided something must be done.

鈥淭his is Smokey waking up and saying, 鈥極h you didn鈥檛 do that to my environment.鈥欌��

At least that鈥檚 the way that artist, Occupy Wall Street veteran and environmental activist Lopi LaRoe sees it. But last week she received a letter threatening her with jail time and thousands of dollars in fines for enlisting Smokey to the anti-fracking cause.

In the fall, LaRoe created an image of Smokey that altered his famous invective 鈥淥nly you can prevent forest fires鈥� to 鈥淥nly you can prevent faucet fires鈥濃�攁 reference to the phenomenon of flaming taps that occasionally occur near where fracking takes place. The adjustment seemed to her in line with the message of conservation Smokey has come to embody.

鈥淭his is the radicalization of Smokey the Bear,鈥� said LaRoe. 鈥淭his is Smokey waking up and saying, 鈥極h you didn鈥檛 do that to my environment.鈥� Smokey wants to fight the corporations and protect the air and the water and the plants and the animals and the people.鈥�

Her parody went viral. She began printing T-shirts at the insistence of friends on Facebook, but demand quickly surpassed those in her immediate circle of contacts. Soon she was packing Smokey in FedEx envelopes and sending him off to Australia and other far-flung terrains. There are also tote bags and patches with the Smokey meme available at . (The tote bags, she advertises, are 鈥済reat for dumpster diving.鈥�) LaRoe says she鈥檚 not out to become rich and the money she charges customers goes toward covering her costs so that she can keep spreading the message of faucet-fire prevention far and wide.

鈥淚t spread like wildfire,鈥� she said, grinning ear to ear.

Not everyone is amused. LaRoe received a cease-and-desist letter from the Metis Group, which serves as legal counsel for the U.S. Department of Agriculture鈥檚 Forest Service division. The letter informs LaRoe that Smokey, his character, and his slogan are property of the U.S. government and warns that she has until May 2 to halt the use of Smokey on her 鈥減roducts鈥� and to stop distributing electronic copies of the meme. Otherwise, she faces up to six months in prison and a penalty as high as $150,000.

鈥淎ny time anybody uses Smokey鈥檚 image for anything other than wildfire prevention,鈥� said Helene Cleveland, fire prevention program manager for the Forest Service, 鈥渋t confuses the public. What we鈥檙e trying to do is keep Smokey on message.鈥� Cleveland added that the 1952 Smokey the Bear Act takes the character out of the public domain and 鈥渁ny change in that would have to go through Congress.鈥�

Despite the warnings in the cease-and-desist letter she received, LaRoe has not ceased or desisted.

Two other entities besides the Forest Service claim joint rights to Smokey. The National Association of State Foresters鈥攁 nonprofit organization consisting of directors of U.S. forestry agencies鈥攁nd the Ad Council.

Remember ? Or the ? They were the Ad Council鈥檚 handiwork. A nonprofit, it describes itself as a promoter of 鈥減ublic service campaigns on behalf of nonprofit organizations and government agencies鈥� with a focus on 鈥渋mproving the quality of life for children, preventive health, education, community well being and strengthening families.鈥� Smokey the Bear was born at the Ad Council, on the desk of , who had a part time job there in the mid-1940s.

The is a conflagration of representatives of the world鈥檚 wealthiest corporations, including such companies as , which announced plans last month to spend $110 million on a research lab devoted to the study of fracking, and finance giants such as Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase. On its website, Citibank advertises an 鈥渆xtensive array of deposit, cash management and credit products鈥� for oil and gas drillers, while a its 鈥淥il & Gas Investment Banking group covers the complete oil and gas value chain, which includes exploration and production, natural gas processing and transmission, refining and marketing, and oilfield services.鈥�

LaRoe believes that those who claim to own Smokey 鈥渄on鈥檛 care that I鈥檓 selling a few T-shirts. They鈥檙e out to crush the meme.鈥�

Both the Ad Council and the Metis Group declined to comment for this story.

Despite the warnings in the cease-and-desist letter she received, LaRoe has not ceased or desisted. Instead, she enlisted the help of her own legal counsel, who fired back with a letter to the Metis Group on Friday. In it, attorney Evan Sarzin argues that LaRoe 鈥榮 culture-jam appropriation of Smokey is permissible under the fair-use exemption to exclusive copyright ownership and chides the the Forest Service for attempting to infringe on LaRoe鈥檚 First Amendment rights.

Sarzin also points out that this is not the first time the Forest Service has sought to silence environmentalists for appropriating Smokey鈥檚 image. In the early 1990s, the Forest Service demanded reparations from the Sante Fe-based conservation group LightHawk after it used Smokey鈥檚 likeness in ads critical of the agency鈥檚 practice of auctioning off land to timber companies. (The Forest Service, as part of the Department of Agriculture, makes its land available for commercial use.) Unlike LaRoe鈥檚 Smokey, LightHawk鈥檚 black bear appeared angry and wielded a chainsaw. 鈥淪ay it ain鈥檛 so, Smokey,鈥� read the ads.

With legal funds provided by the Sierra Club, LightHawk sued the Forest Service in 1992 for infringing on its freedom of speech. The court eventually sided with the plaintiffs, noting that 鈥渢he satirical use of Smokey the Bear to criticize Forest Service management techniques is unlikely to cause confusion or to dilute the value of Smokey the Bear to help prevent forest fires. Thus the Forest Service cannot have a compelling interest in prohibiting such use.鈥�

Sarzin also calls attention to the fact the Forest Service鈥檚 own research points to environmental degradation caused by fracking. A 2011 study published in the Journal of Environmental Quality by Forest Service researchers in West Virginia鈥檚 Monongahela National Forest. Despite their findings, the Forest Service is considering approving fracking leases in the nearby George Washington National Forest. The Southern Environmental Law Center, which opposes the plan, says it represents a threat to local wildlife鈥攊ncluding the black bear.

鈥淲hen we were little kids we were taught that there is this bear out there that wants to protect our forests.鈥�

A report released last month by the the National Parks Conservation Association warns that fracking for oil is decimating the ecosystem surrounding Theodore Roosevelt National Park, named after the Republican president who founded the Forest Service. 鈥淯nless we take quick action,鈥� the report warns 鈥渁ir, water and wildlife will experience permanent harm in other national parks as well.鈥� Thus, Sarzin writes, LaRoe鈥檚 Smokey meme 鈥渋s a message that the Forest Service should endorse.鈥�

LaRoe hopes that by gaining publicity she can force the Forest Service to take a stand against fracking. In order to continue the fight, however, she says she needs the support of groups whose mission it is to defend civil liberties or protect the environment to provide legal defense funds鈥攋ust as the Sierra Club did for LightHawk.

鈥淭his about more than me as an artist,鈥� LaRoe said. 鈥淭his is about everybody鈥檚 right to freedom of speech and a healthy environment.鈥�

Her childhood memories of Smokey, she explains, are compelling her to keep raising faucet-fire prevention awareness despite the threat of jail time. 鈥淲hen we were little kids we were taught that there is this bear out there that wants to protect our forests. Smokey is our bear. He belongs to the people.鈥�

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