HELENA — A southwestern Montana man has been fined $1,700 and banned from all federal lands for two years after being convicted of building illegal hunting camps and a trail in the Helena National Forest.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Strong on Dec. 4 found Robert C. Myers of Jefferson County guilty of four misdemeanor charges including building trails and structures and camping longer than the state limit of 14 days.
Strong banned Myers, 64, from all national forests and national parks for four years, but suspended two years after Myers paid the fine.
Banishment “is significant and not something that occurs very often, which speaks to the egregious nature of what he was doing,” Forest Service law enforcement officer Tony Fedele told the Helena Independent Record.
The Forest Service began investigating Myers’ camps in 2010 and Fedele said he made more than 20 visits to the camps during the investigation.
Myers was cited in October.
Fedele said one camp was built about 9 miles west of Clancy and the second one about 1.5 miles north of the first. Prosecutors alleged Myers built a 4.5-mile trail, including bridges, to the second camp. Both camps had permanent corrals while the second one had a hay storage barn and a permanent floor for the tent.
Rehabilitating the trial would have carried more than $20,000 in fines, but by the time the case got to court beetle-killed trees had fallen in the area and covered the trail, Fedele said.
The Forest Service is investigating several other illegal camps in the Helena National Forest and Fedele hopes Myers’ conviction might serve as a warning
“I’m always for someone going out to enjoy their national forest, but they must remember it’s not simply for your own use but for everyone,” Fedele said.