Ex-Forest Worker Faces Probation Inspector Admits Falsifying Reports About Tree-Planting

A former, longtime Forest Service employee will serve two years’ probation for falsifying inspection reports that benefited a tree-planting contractor.

Cathy Bettigole, 47, of Pinehurst pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Coeur d’Alene to changing documents to make it appear as if Greenhill Reforestation had successfully replanted logged areas in the Wallace Ranger District of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. She also was sentenced to pay $2,788 restitution, a $1,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service.

“The Forest Service believes Greenhill did not do the planting properly, and that resulted in lots of trees dying,” assistant U.S. Attorney Barry McHugh said. Bettigole, as the government’s inspector, “changed the plot sheets and made a false statement to the Forest Service regarding planting quality,” he said.

Bettigole made the false statement in 1993 or 1994. She told the court her motive in falsifying the document was frustration with an overwhelming workload and a lack of support from supervisors or the Forest Service, McHugh said.

“We don’t know that’s necessarily all of the story,” he said.

Bettigole appears to have had a relationship with the president of the Eugene, Ore.-based Greenhill Reforestation “that went beyond the work relationship,” McHugh said.

No charges are contemplated against Greenhill. There is no evidence it was part of making the false statement about the replanting, McHugh said.

The Forest Service discovered the replanting problems as a result of an anonymous tip in 1995. Greenhill is suing the Forest Service for the final payment for the replanting work

The amount is question is about $140,000, Forest Service officials said.

Neither Bettigole nor her attorney, Judy Clarke of the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Spokane, could be reached for comment.