Timber poaching on the rise

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Timber Poachers
Fighting back: Park managers are cracking down on thieves stealing old-growth redwood logs
Chuck Squatriglia, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, September 17, 2006
(09-17) 04:00 PDT Orick, Humboldt County -- California's ancient redwood forests have survived fires, logging and disease.Now they face a growing threat from poachers who steal downed old-growth redwood trees in ever-larger numbers, scarring the land and robbing the forest of a vital part of its ecology for the sake of a few thousand dollars.In the past eight months, five men have been convicted of stealing old-growth logs -- those 750 years old or more -- from Redwood National and State Parks, established in 1968 to protect nearly half of the world's remaining old-growth redwoods. The convictions follow a concerted effort by park officials to crack down on thefts and preserve one of California's greatest natural treasures.

Poaching is a problem in every national park. There is seemingly nothing poachers won't take, be it snakes from Mojave National Preserve, fossils from Badlands National Park in South Dakota, American ginseng from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia or frontier-era pistols from Fort Davis National Historic Site in Texas. "There are no resources out there, besides air, that someone isn't taking," said Todd Swain, a National Park Service special agent who has investigated such crimes since 1991. "There's a huge segment of the population who are commercially removing park resources, and it does a huge amount of damage."

Redwood theft has been a mounting problem at Redwood National and State Parks for about 10 years, and park officials believe its rise followed the decline of the timber industry. Downed redwood logs take as long as 500 years to decompose. In that time they retain water and nutrients, providing habitat for hundreds of species of plants, invertebrates and animals. New trees take root in the downed redwoods, which also fertilize the next generation of redwoods. "To me, it's a philosophical issue," said Pat Grediagin, chief ranger at Redwood park. "These trees, this forest, were set aside for the enjoyment of all people. Less than 5 percent of all the old-growth redwoods in the world remain, and to have people steal them is a major problem."

Thieves take downed logs from readily accessible sites -- usually near roads or trails within the park, which covers 133,000 acres along the far north coast of California. Although thieves haven't started chopping down live trees, authorities worry that will become an issue as the number of easily poached logs diminishes. The logs, which can reach 4 or 5 feet in diameter, are cut into smaller pieces called bolt shakes that measure about 3 feet long and fetch about $10 apiece from lumber mills. The wood is often turned into shingles or sold to artists, and the thieves select only high-quality wood with straight grain and few knots. "They're professionals," said Laura Denny, a Redwood park ranger who investigates redwood thefts. "They know what they're looking for, and they know what they're doing." Denny said the thieves usually work at night, when few people are around to hear their chain saws, and the forest's heavy growth does a remarkable job muffling the sound. The thieves usually work over the course of several nights, coming and going at random times to evade detection.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/17/POACH.TMP