From Barbara Barte Osborn
A man charged with cutting old-growth trees on U.S. Forest Service land near Truckee was sentenced earlier this week to 27 months in prison and $70,430 in restitution.
John W. Clifton, 21, of Truckee and Sierraville, was sentenced Tuesday in Sacramento by U.S. District Judge John A Mendez.
The federal sentence will run concurrently with Clifton's remaining time on an unrelated state sentence for assault with a deadly weapon at Boca Reservoir near Truckee.
Either before or after the federal sentence, Clifton will also serve 30 days in jail for misdemeanor battery on an agricultural inspection worker at the Truckee checkpoint.
"This case was the product of an extensive investigation by the U.S. Forest Service," acting U.S. attorney Lawrence G. Brown said in a news release.
Clifton illegally felled at least three and possibly up to 33 mature pine trees on the shoreline of Davies Creek and Stampede Reservoir, about 15 miles north of Truckee. (Photo below was supplied by U.S. Forest Service.)
The trees' average height was 100 feet and average age, 100 to 125 years old, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ellen V. Endrizzi, who prosecuted the case, said in the release.
"This was senseless destruction of the forest and we will prosecute these types of cases to the fullest extent possible," Gary Barnett, patrol captain for the Tahoe National Forest, said in the release.
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