Vandalism costly for national forests

GREAT FALLS – When vandals attacked the caretaker’s cabin at the Crystal Lake campground early in June, a camper huddling nearby watched as they shot up the cabin, took an ax to the roof and busted out windows.

The criminals fled the scene after doing an estimated $8,000 to $10,000 damage – including shooting up the witness’ SUV. The witness got enough information that the Forest Service believes it is closing in on at least one of the suspects.

Damage to the Crystal Lake cabin was significant because of the aggressiveness of the vandals, said Duane Moe, the head of law enforcement for Lewis and Clark National Forest.

Vandalism occurs frequently on public lands in Montana. The isolation makes it easy for criminals to shoot holes in signs, bust up outhouses and break into cabins undetected.

“It is sad. … It is something we deal with all the time,” Moe said. “It has always been kind of a dream of mine to actually catch some of these folks.”

Moe estimates that each of the nine national forests in Montana spends $15,000 to $20,000 per year to repair damage to signs and outhouses alone.

“If we add timber damages from illegal takings and resource damage, such as creation of illegal trails, the damage would be more than $100,000 (per forest),” he said.

The cost also is significant for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, although the agency could not quantify the impact of vandalism.

“We see tens of thousands of dollars in damage from irresponsible behavior,” said Chas Van Genderen, operations and management bureau chief for FWP. “That is absorbed into operations. Our park users, our hunters and anglers are bearing the costs.”

There is a lot of public land in Montana – more than 30 million acres – and not many officers to patrol it.

The Forest Service, for example, oversees 16.2 million acres on its nine forests and has only 20 uniformed law enforcement officers to patrol it.

“There are also five agents doing investigative work, and all our employees in the field provide information to law enforcement officers,” said Paula Nelson, public information officer with the Forest Service Region 1 headquarters in Missoula.

Nelson said that between June 1, 2005, and May 31 of this year, there were 229 documented cases of damage to forests in Montana.

“Summer and fall are the prime times for vandalism,” she said.

“Most of the break-ins are just normal break-ins,” said Shawn Graef, Forest Service law enforcement agent. “Usually young folks will break in and party in a cabin. They break something here or there, and they bust the door getting in, and they will trash the inside and leave their garbage around.

“They don’t viciously commit vandalism. But what happened (at the Crystal Lake cabin) was out of the ordinary,” he added.

Graef said he thinks that most vandalism is committed by people in their late teens to early 20s.

“It seems like they are more aggressive, and they have no respect. The respect factor has fallen off toward private property and federal lands. They don’t care. They will do whatever they want, and it is just ‘try and catch me,’ ” he said.

“Burglars also have targeted the Sun River Wildlife Management Area west of Augusta. They stole an unusual set of elk horns and, later, about $8,000 worth of tack and fence material.

Mark Schlepp, the manager at Sun River and seven other wildlife management areas, said vandalism to signs is a chronic problem, and the repair costs can add up.

Besides attacking signs, outhouses, and driving off-trail, vandals do some extraordinary things.

In June of 2005, heavy rains appeared to have washed out the Ruby Hen Road, or Forest Service Road No. 613 in the Little Belt Mountains. But after a closer look, Forest Service engineers concluded vandals had intentionally blocked a culvert. Moe said that incident cost $47,000.

“Just people having a good time at the public’s expense,” said Bonnie Dearing, public information officer for the Lewis and Clark National Forest.

Two years ago, a couple rented the Kings Hill cabin and cooked up a batch of methamphetamine. No one knew until months later, when the couple was arrested near Kalispell and confessed.

Since meth and some of its ingredients are hazardous materials, the Forest Service hired a professional team to certify that the cabin was properly cleaned. They also had to contact members of the public who had used the cabin The whole endeavor cost $5,000.

Another time, a horseman became so aggravated by his horse that he shot the animal dead in a campground. “He killed it and left, and we had to dispose of that animal. That cost us $1,500. We have a ton of that,” Moe said. “The cost to taxpayers is not just wages and mileage on vehicles. We spend a lot of money just keeping the place fit.”