WILMINGTON – The owner of a private ski club must pay more than $72,700 for damaging three miles of trail in the Green Mountain National Forest, officials announced Tuesday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont said James Barnes of Wilmington has agreed to pay $25,000 in civil fines and $47,761 in restitution for ordering work for The Hermitage Club on a portion of the Deerfield Ridge Trail in November 2012.
In addition to the project being unauthorized, federal officials said the work “was not done to professional standards and did not include sufficient soil stabilization,” resulting in the need for extensive repairs.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Perella said the trail was widened, and rock and dirt were moved “without adequate mitigation,” rendering the trail more prone to erosion.
This was the second time this year Hermitage has reached a settlement over environmental violations.
Bennington attorney David F. Silver, who represented Barnes and the Hermitage, said in the most recent case that the organization “sincerely regrets mistaking a portion of National Forest land for land owned by The Hermitage,” adding that “this was a good-faith mistake based on a 30-year-old ski boundary area marked off by orange markers.”
The settlement is the result of a U.S. Forest Service investigation, which showed that an excavator used to perform the work belonged to Hermitage Inn Real Estate Holding Co. LLC, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Barnes is the principal shareholder for Hermitage.
The federal government had alleged that “Barnes, on behalf of The Hermitage, directed other individuals to use this excavator to conduct the unauthorized trail work, which included excavation and some tree-cutting.”
The repair price tag included emergency mitigation costs, restoration costs and labor; officials said additional work will be performed when restitution is paid. Green Mountain National Forest will get $45,049, while the Green Mountain Club will get $2,712 for assisting with restoration work.
In addition to the restitution, Barnes’ fine breaks down to $5,000 for each of five federal violations – constructing or maintaining trail without authorization; damaging a Forest Service trail; unlawful operation of a motor vehicle on trails; cutting or damaging timber; and damaging federal property.
From the Hermitage Club’s perspective, the work was aimed at providing “improved and safer trails for the local Deerfield Valley Stump Jumpers and other Vermont snowmobilers,” Silver wrote in an email response to VTDigger.
“When the mistake was called to the Hermitage Club’s attention, the club immediately ceased operation of the trail and assisted in mitigation (reseeding, haying for erosion and blocking off all trail access points with boulders and felled trees),” Silver wrote. “We greatly appreciate and support the improvements the Forest Service has made to the trail and recognize that it would have been best to have consulted and worked with the Forest Service from the beginning.”
The federal settlement comes roughly six months after the Hermitage Club was found liable for violations of Vermont’s land-use laws and environmental regulations in connection with various improvements made at the resort. The work cited in that state case is not connected to the trail work cited in Tuesday’s federal announcement, officials said.
