Bernie Cooper, 65, was working as a farm manager on a Buckingham Road property near Rutherglen last year when he found a way to get “a bit of extra cash”.

He responded to an advertisement in The Border Mail from a person asking to purchase wood.

Over time, Cooper sold 67 cubic metres of wood and made more than $3000.

But between May and June last year, Parks Victoria and Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning officers noticed trees had fallen and been chopped up.

They watched as Cooper, on public land, used a chainsaw to chop the river red gum wood and load it onto his boss’s car, transporting it back to a pile at the Buckingham Road property.

When approached by the officers, he was co-operative and showed them where he had taken the wood, claiming he thought the trees had been on private land.

Cooper appeared in Wangaratta Magistrates Court this week to plead guilty to illegally taking firewood from a state forest.

“I thought it was on our land … I didn’t realise it was wrong,” he told the court.

“I’m not trying to hide it.”

Magistrate Peter Mithen placed Cooper on a 12-month good behaviour bond with the conditions he pay $2500 towards Landcare and $2475 towards DELWP to cover the costs of recovering the firewood and taking the case to court.

“You need to understand it’s a serious situation,” he said. “It’s for a good reason – to protect the environment, to protect the wildlife and the habitat.”

He accepted Cooper did not realise the trees were on public land, but said it was important to send a message to others this time of year.

“It’s a shame you didn’t take those extra steps to find out what you needed to find out,” Mr Mithen said.

But he refused to grant DELWP’s request to seize the vehicle used to take the wood, until the property owner had a chance to state his case.