CHEYENNE - A federal judge has just found Saratoga logger Sterling Arnold guilty on three of four counts in a case where clearcutting was illegally perpetrated in the Pennock Mountain Roadless Areas south of Elk Mountain.

Arnold was convicted on the following charges:

• Cutting, wantonly injuring, and destroying trees on public land;
• Removing timber without authorization;
• Conducting a timber removal operation without authorization

Each count carries a maximim penalty of $5,000 and 6 months imprisonment; in addition, restitution of between $221,895.00 and $338,372.37, plus a $50 special assessment may be levied. A date for sentencing has not yet been set.

Rancher Steve Palm, who had also been charged with the timber theft, was found not guilty on all four counts of the indictment.

The timber theft was discovered by Biodiversity Conservation Alliance during a roadless area inventory in a remote section of the Pennock Mountain roadless area.