The owner of the Hermitage Inn and Ski Club in Wilmington has agreed to pay $72,000 in fines and restitutions for damaging a snowmobile trail in the Green Mountain National Forest.
The Vermont U.S. Attorney's office says Hermitage Inn owner Jim Barnes ordered excavation work that damaged the Deerfield Ridge Trail, which runs in the national forest below the ridge line of Haystack Mountain.
The investigation by the U.S. Forest Service goes back to November 2012, when the government says unauthorized trail work was done.
The work did not include sufficient soil stabilization measures, the government alleges, and it damaged about three miles of the snowmobile trail.
The Green Mountain Club has already spent $2,711 on mitigation and restoration, and forest experts say it will cost another $45,000 to fully repair the trail.
Barnes agreed to pay for all of the restoration, and will also pay $25,000 in fines for five violations.
A representative from The Hermitage could not be reached for comment.
Earlier this year The Hermitage agreed to pay the state $205,000 for violating land use and environmental permit requirements for work done at the exclusive member-only resort.
