PUBLIC LANDS – Jason Reed, 22, of Boise pleaded guilty Tuesday in United States Magistrate Court to destruction of the government-owned Trapper Cabin at the French Creek Trailhead on the McCall Ranger District of the Payette National Forest. 

Reed told Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald E. Bush that in 2015 he broke out the cabin’s windows, wrapped a winch cable from his father’s ATV around the deck of the cabin, and pulled the deck off its foundation. He then admitted to wrapping the winch cable around a log on the corner of the cabin and pulled the two bottom logs, causing the cabin to partially collapse.

The Trapper Cabin was built in 1936 and is one of two cabins left in Idaho that were built and utilized for predator control by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

It was built in the Rocky Mountain style log cabin, using peeled lodge pole pine logs and mud chinking. It is the only cabin on the Payette National Forest that was built in this style, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in Boise.

Prior to the damage caused by Reed, the cabin was in good condition and was eligible to be listed on the National Register
of Historic Places. Reed has agreed to pay $31,919. for the cabin's restoration, said U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson.

The charge of destruction of government property is a class A misdemeanor and is punishable by up to one year in prison, one year of supervised release, and a fine of up to $100,000.

Reed is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 14, 2016, at the federal courthouse in Boise.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Forest Service.