Billboarding is one form of ecodefense in the form of monkeywrenching. It is the act of cutting down, burning, and/or defacing highway billboards. The American novelist Edward Abbey seems to have greatly advanced (if not out-right advocated) the art of billboarding starting around the year 1950 in and around the New Mexico city of Albuquerque. Given the size and weight of modern billboards, billboarders consider billboarding an art form as well as an ethical, moral, and justified act. Billboarding takes a minor role in the Abbey novel The Monkey Wrench Gang.