POCATELLO – Thomas Demorest, 73, of Stanley and Boise, Idaho, pled guilty and was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Pocatello for knowingly violating a regulation pertaining to a threatened species of fish, a misdemeanor, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald E. Bush sentenced Demorest to two years probation, a $625 fine, a condition of probation that he hold no management position at Diamond D Ranch, and fifty hours of community service at a fish hatchery. The Diamond D Ranch is located forty-two miles north of Stanley, Idaho, in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness area. Demorest was charged in a one-count information filed on September 20, 2011.

According to the plea agreement, Demorest admitted that in the summer and fall of 2009, he operated Mayfield Creek and Trail Creek irrigation diversions without fish screens and without a permit from the Department of the Interior or the Department of Commerce authorizing the taking of threatened species of Chinook salmon and bull trout. On October 8, 2009, a U.S. Forest Service Fisheries biologist found thirty-five Chinook salmon and five bull trout trapped in the irrigation ditch behind the closed headgate to the Mayfield diversion. Chinook salmon and bull trout are listed as threatened species under 50 C.F.R. § 223.102(c)(22) and 50 C.F.R. § 17.44.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).