BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Washington state man who authorities said killed at least 118 eagles as part of a wildlife trafficking ring that operated on a Native American reservation in Montana was sentenced Thursday to three years and 10 months in prison, and must pay more than $777,000 in restitution.
The trafficking ring over more than a decade sold eagle feathers and parts on a black market that exploits high demand among tribal members who use them in powwows and other ceremonies. The defendant and others killed at least 107 hawks and as many as 3,600 birds overall, prosecutors said.
The poaching operation centered on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana, which researchers say has some of the highest concentrations of eagles and other birds of prey in the U.S.
Travis John Branson of Cusick, Washington, pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy and wildlife trafficking charges.
U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in Missoula said during the sentencing hearing that the killing of birds by Branson was calculated, extensive and carried out with full knowledge that he was breaking the law.
“If you had not been caught you’d still be doing it today,” he said.
The sentence was at the upper end of federal sentencing guidelines.
Prior to being sentenced, Branson apologized to the court and his family.
“It’s my own fault,” he said. “I know what I did was wrong.”
He declined to comment further after the hearing.
In text messages obtained by investigators and presented at the sentencing hearing, Branson wrote of killing birds since the 1980s.
“So many I can’t remember anymore LOL,” Branson said in one text.
Other texts described eagles being shot in Nevada and Idaho and instances of dozens of birds being shot on a single weekend.
“This is just a small glimpse of the killing that was happening,” U.S Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Mona Iannelli said during the hearing.
A second defendant in the case told authorities that the trafficking ring had been operating since 2009, killing 300 to 400 birds annually. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office have said others were also involved.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to impose a “significant” prison sentence and order Branson to pay restitution of $5,000 for each eagle killed and $1,750 for each hawk.
Branson faced up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge. But his public defender asked for a sentence of probation and claimed that prosecutors overstated the number of birds killed.
Federal Defender Andrew Nelson also disputed the restitution amount, saying it was too high for the eagles and the hawks should not be counted.
Branson had no prior criminal history, according to Nelson. Because of the criminal charges, he lost his job as a maintenance supervisor for the Kalispell Tribe in Washington, Nelson said, and the defendant suffered a stroke in April.
The criminal case underscores the persistence of a thriving illegal trade in eagle feathers despite law enforcement efforts over the past decade that netted dozens of criminal indictments across the U.S. West and Midwest.
Bald eagles, once highly imperiled by the pesticide DDT, have bounced back in recent decades and are now abundant. The recovery of golden eagles has been more tenuous and researchers have warned that the population is on the brink of decline due to shootings, poisonings, electrocutions on power lines, collisions with wind turbines and other threats.
It’s illegal to buy or sell eagle feathers or other parts. The government has sought to offset strong demand for feathers among Native Americans by providing them for free from a government repository. But they’re unable to keep up with demand and the repository has a yearslong backlog.
Branson made between $180,000 and $360,000 from 2009 to 2021 selling bald and golden eagle parts illegally, court records said.
Court documents quote Branson as saying in a January 2021 text that he was going on a “killing spree” to obtain eagle tails.
“It was not uncommon for Branson to take upwards of nine eagles at a time,” prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montana wrote in a court filing. “Not only did Branson kill eagles, but he hacked them into pieces to sell for future profits.”
The second defendant, Simon Paul, of St. Ignatius, Montana, remains at large. A federal judge issued an arrest warrant for Paul in December after he failed to show up for an initial court hearing. Court documents have suggested he fled to Canada.
Federally recognized tribes can apply for permits with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take a bald or golden eagle for religious purposes. Enrolled tribal members can apply for feathers and other bird parts from the National Eagle Repository in Colorado and non-government repositories in Oklahoma and Arizona.
Matthew Brown And Amy Beth Hanson, The Associated Press