By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
The former Monadnock area state representative charged with engaging in eco terrorism last year won’t face any consequences after he was found not guilty.
Chris Balch, an environmentalist Democrat who represented Antrim, Bennington, Francestown, Greenfield, Greenville, Hancock, Hillsborough, Lyndeborough, Wilton and Windsor, in the State House from 2018 to 2020, was found not guilty last month on charges connected to the tree spiking at Russell-Abbott State Forest, as well as in the adjacent Heald Tract, which is a forest property owned by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
Milford District Court Judge Todd Prevett ruled that the state did not have enough evidence to support the charges following a hearing on March 4, according to Chief Steven Sherman of the New Hampshire Forest Protection Bureau.
“The District Court Judge ruled that the state did not meet the burden of proof to show that Mr. Balch was present during the commission of the crime,” Sherman said via email.
The state will likely not be seeking any further charges against Balch in the case, according to Sherman.
The state had photos of Balch walking in the forests with his dogs around the time the spikes were believed to have been driven into the trees, as well as other circumstantial evidence, according to Balch. The fact he was in the woods at the time is not evidence he spiked the trees, he said, as several other people were also on the trails around the same time.
Balch declined to answer InDepthNH.org’s questions about whether or not he actually drove spikes into the trees. In a lengthy statement provided to InDepthNH.org, Balch lauded his own efforts, and those of others, to protect the environment through action while also not distancing himself from the practice of tree spiking.
“I would have closed my case by asking the judge to consider of what I am guilty. That I am only guilty of caring. I am only guilty of defending my family, my children and grandchildren. I am only guilty of being part of the growing effort to protect the planet and all life on it. I am only guilty of being a moral person,” Balch wrote.
Jack Savage, with the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, said tree spiking is the practice of driving large metal spikes into trees in order to damage chain saws and saw mill equipment used to harvest trees for lumber. The spikes can cause heavy damage to equipment and pose a potential risk to the life and safety of foresters and mill workers.
“You’re looking at, at a minimum, some significant damage to the expensive equipment in the mill, and possible serious harm to a mill worker,” Savage told InDepthNH.org last year.
The state, as well as the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, does harvest wood from forests in order to fund operations as well as manage the land and create better conditions for wildlife, Savage said.