SHERIDAN, Wyo. (AP) - A U.S. Forest Service employee group has disclosed information its director said was used to force the agency to replace the Bighorn National Forest supervisor in 1997.

The internal documents describe failed Forest Service leadership, federal and grand jury investigations that sought but did not find evidence of collusion by some of the region's largest timber companies and attempts by the Forest Service staff to evade a court order.

Andy Stahl, director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, said he is disclosing the information because the agency is retaliating against a longtime Bighorn Forest employee for complaining about management of the forest.

Wilderness Coordinator Craig Cope, a 16-year Bighorn employee, is being threatened with a 15-day suspension without pay for moving a bat house without permission. Cope had complained about former Bighorn Forest Supervisor Larry Keown.

Bighorn Forest Supervisor Gail Kimbell, who succeeded Keown, describes Stahl's after-the-fact salvos against Keown as "unfair and mean-spirited."

But Stahl maintains the suspension of Cope is directly linked to Cope's complaints about management.

"This story is not really about the heinous crime of moving a bat box," Stahl wrote in his article. "It is about the Forest Service's unerring instinct to 'shoot' employees who blow the whistle on their superior's misdeeds."

Stahl wrote in an article for the upcoming issue of the group's magazine that he had used the information to force the Forest Service to transfer Keown in February 1997.

Keown has since retired from the agency and could not be reached for comment.

Stahl's information includes an internal report that blamed Keown for personnel and management problems in the offices of the Bighorn National Forest.

In addition, he released a 1993 report from an investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General.

The 11-page report reveals federal investigators suspected timber companies of "conspiring to and unlawfully entering into agreements not to compete against each other on various USDA, Forest Service timber sales."

A grand jury meeting secretly in Billings investigated the possibility that the sawmills had agreed not to bid against each other, but never brought any charges.

However, the investigation of Bighorn National Forest timber sales led federal agents to question handling of a timber sale by forest staff.

In August 1992, the Bighorn Forest sold the Gloom Salvage timber sale to Wyoming Sawmills of Sheridan. The sale contained 961,000 board feet of timber, which could have put the Forest Service in violation of the court order obtained by the Sierra Club that limited logging in the Bighorn National Forest to 7 million board feet of timber per year, the report says.

Upon realizing the conflict with the court order, Keown and his staff then attempted to cancel the Gloom sale and readvertise it as the Wolf Salvage sale after upping the estimated "defect," or unusable wood, in the involved timber, the report says.

"The acreage on the Wolf would be the same as the Gloom, but they would use a higher percent of defect in order to make it appear that the sale would be reduced to 600 (thousand board feet), when in fact the volume would remain the same," the report says. The revised figures suggested that only 54 percent of the wood in the sale would be usable; the remaining 46 percent would be defect.

"Regional timber staff stated that the 54 percent yield was not a true representation of the volume," the report says.

Federal investigators said in the report that they notified the Forest Service's acting regional forester of "the possible violation of the court order."

But then Bighorn officials canceled the Wolf Salvage sale and reinstated the Gloom sale, but modifying it to an estimated 767,000 board feet of timber instead of the original 961,000.

The report led to no charges "due to lack of sufficient evidence," the report says.

Ernie Schmidt, general manager of Wyoming Sawmills, said it's wrong to surmise that Keown sought to help the timber industry.

"Larry Keown didn't do anything for this company - we're suing over something he did," Schmidt said. The sawmill has filed a lawsuit over a Keown-brokered plan the sawmill contends has restricted logging in the Bighorn Mountains to protect an American Indian religious site.

In succeeding years, forest employees complained about failed leadership in the Bighorn. A confidential 1995 report by independent consultant Patrick Lynch based on interviews with Bighorn Forest employees concluded that "there is an almost total lack of leadership on the forest."

BUFFALO, Wyo. (AP) - An employee of the Bighorn National Forest was suspended for moving a bat roosting box without permission.

Craig Cope said he recently received a letter informing him that he was to be suspended without pay June 13-26. He was billed $19.50 for damages.

The suspension came after an investigation revealed that Cope and a U.S. Bureau of Land Management employee moved the box about 30 feet last year because it blocked a view of the Bighorn Mountains from offices that the Forest Service and BLM share in Buffalo.

The BLM employee, Robert Hartman, was not disciplined.

A group representing U.S. Forest Service employees claimed that retaliation was the real reason the investigation began.

Andy Stahl, director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, called the suspension "nuts." Earlier he had said that a suspension would be out of proportion to the offense.

According to Stahl, Cope was part of a group of employees who were troubled by the management practices of a former supervisor.

Forest Supervisor Gail Kimbell was not available for comment, but earlier had said the agency was not retaliating but instead was following policy for dealing with misconduct.

BUFFALO, Wyo. (AP) - A group representing U.S. Forest Service employees claims retaliation is the real reason why a wilderness coordinator for the Bighorn National Forest faces suspension without pay.

Craig Cope, who was among a group of about a dozen employees troubled by management practices, is accused of moving a bat roosting box without permission.

Retaliation is the only explanation for his imminent 15-day suspension, said Andy Stahl, director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.

"The only other explanation is insanity," Stahl said. "It's entirely out of proportion to the crime - if this could even be called a crime."

Cope and a U.S. Bureau of Land Management employee moved the bat box about 30 feet because it blocked a view of the Bighorn Mountains from offices the Forest Service and BLM share in Buffalo.

Robert Hartman, the BLM employee, faced no disciplinary action. He told a private investigator hired to probe the case that the Forest Service had overreacted by launching an investigation that could "impair the relationship and morale" of employees in both agencies.

Forest Supervisor Gail Kimbell said the agency was not retaliating against Cope.

"That implication is absolutely ludicrous," she said. "We have a process for dealing with misconduct and we're following that process."

She declined to discuss the case further because it is a personnel matter.

According to Stahl, the group of employees were troubled by the management practices of former forest supervisor Larry Keown. They had asked Stahl's organization for help after pleading their case with Elizabeth Estill, then the regional forester in Denver.

"They turned to us as really a last resort," Stahl said.

Keown was reassigned to another job in Denver in 1997 after Stahl threatened to release internal documents raising questions about Keown's leadership, according to Stahl.

On March 24, Bighorn National Forest District Ranger Kathryn Bulchis notified Cope she planned to suspend him without pay for moving the box without permission and not admitting to moving the box when asked.

Cope may appeal the planned suspension to Kimbell.

The Forest Service spent more than $3,500 on a private investigator to determine who had moved the bat box, Stahl wrote in Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics magazine.

Cope said Stahl's article was accurate but he declined to comment further.