Here's a quote from the Philadelphia City Paper article referenced in the original post:

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On the cover of the book, Hayduke Lives! by Edward Abbey, is an illustration of a man’s hand holding several sticks of dynamite. The 1991 novel is about a radical environmentalist, George Washington Hayduke III, who blows up bridges, burns tractors and sabotages other projects he believes are destroying the beautiful Southwest landscape.

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Abbey wrote another novel, "The Monkey Wrench Gang," with a similar theme and "monkey-wrenching" has become jargon used by some of the more radical environmental protectors for their efforts to disrupt such things as logging or development projects.