Thieves hacking down majestic trees to support drug habit
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SHELTON, Wash. - Thieves in Mason County are hacking down majestic old maple trees and stealing wood from the heart of the trees - and much of the stolen wood is winding up in the hands of unsuspecting music lovers.
The tree poaching has become so rampant that the Sheriff's Office now has a designated deputy who patrols the forest trying to prevent thieves from cutting down trees that have been growing for many decades.
Just like a fine wine, the aged wood from the center of a decades-old maple can be used in the handmaking of a violin.
Ben Barnes, an Olympia violin maker, imports his wood from a reputable dealer in Europe. But often buyers of violins and guitars have no idea they're purchasing stolen merchandise. And the crime scene is deep in the forest.
"Maple is often used for musical instruments - people often call it musicwood," says Mason County sheriff's deputy Jason Sisson.
Sisson says thieves recently hacked down about two dozen majestic trees near Shelton to make a quick buck.
He showed KOMO News the hacked-up remains of the trees.
"This is a perfect example of a section of wood where blocks have been harvested out of it," he says.
What poachers are looking for is old wood with a wavy grain and desirable characteristics from the heart of a maple tree.
"They're only going to cut the best portion of these logs," says Sisson. "They want the best. The rest goes to waste because they can't sell it and that's all they're in for."
Thieves can illegally sell one poached maple for thousands of dollars.
"Oftentimes it's used to support drug habits," says Sisson.
He says he has seen the crime of wood poaching skyrocket - paralleling the rise of rural drug use.
"It's overall become a bigger money-maker for the bad guys and more dangerous for us," Sisson says.
The thieves want the fast cash for a quick hit - but it will take years for local forests to heal.
Sisson says in many cases, tree poaching is considered a felony - and a conviction can lead to jail time.
The tree poaching has become so rampant that the Sheriff's Office now has a designated deputy who patrols the forest trying to prevent thieves from cutting down trees that have been growing for many decades.
Just like a fine wine, the aged wood from the center of a decades-old maple can be used in the handmaking of a violin.
Ben Barnes, an Olympia violin maker, imports his wood from a reputable dealer in Europe. But often buyers of violins and guitars have no idea they're purchasing stolen merchandise. And the crime scene is deep in the forest.
"Maple is often used for musical instruments - people often call it musicwood," says Mason County sheriff's deputy Jason Sisson.
Sisson says thieves recently hacked down about two dozen majestic trees near Shelton to make a quick buck.
He showed KOMO News the hacked-up remains of the trees.
"This is a perfect example of a section of wood where blocks have been harvested out of it," he says.
What poachers are looking for is old wood with a wavy grain and desirable characteristics from the heart of a maple tree.
"They're only going to cut the best portion of these logs," says Sisson. "They want the best. The rest goes to waste because they can't sell it and that's all they're in for."
Thieves can illegally sell one poached maple for thousands of dollars.
"Oftentimes it's used to support drug habits," says Sisson.
He says he has seen the crime of wood poaching skyrocket - paralleling the rise of rural drug use.
"It's overall become a bigger money-maker for the bad guys and more dangerous for us," Sisson says.
The thieves want the fast cash for a quick hit - but it will take years for local forests to heal.
Sisson says in many cases, tree poaching is considered a felony - and a conviction can lead to jail time.
Just make all drugs legal and free. Â Put big troughs full of drugs at designated locations and let the addicts have as much as they want. Â They're going to get the drugs anyway, might as well remove criminals from the loop.
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I am not saying that these illegal drugs are good for you. Â Of course they lead to terrible problems. Â So provide education and treatment too.
This is just one example of how the drug industry has a negative effect on our society.
A great solution to the problems of drugs in our community is to pay the mexican cartels to keep drugs OUT of our country. The less drugs on the street the more $$ they receive. The impact will be immediate and it will ultimately be cheaper
 @truefiction that's an interesting idea. what would keep them from taking the prevention money and still moving the drugs?
I don't disagree with those who think this was a poorly written story but as to whether the timber poaching is related to drugs or not, that has been covered in other articles on this problem when it first really reared it's head years ago.  One of the worst poachers is headed off to federal prison now and blames his drug habit.  The article also fails to mention the legislation that was passed making it illegal to transport maple wood over a certain dimension without a document (basically a user cert) stating where it was from and the acknowledgement of the landowner to try and combat the problem of once it was in the poachers truck on 101 it was hard to prove where it was from.  The reputable buyers know who the bad guys are and don't buy from them but there are others who don't care - kind of like pawn shops.
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http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2003710429_maple17m.html
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http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Washington-old-growth-poacher-stole-a-national-4116933.php
Re: "...there are others who don't care - kind of like pawn shops."
Perhaps you're not aware of the oversight exerted by state & local law enforcement over every pawn shop in the state, and the strictly enforced legal requirements for every pawn or purchase transaction they perform. There's no option to feign ignorance. Every transaction and valid customer ID must be documented in detail, and this information must be transmitted to the Law Enforcement Support Agency the same day. If any item does turn out to be stolen, the pawnbroker loses the item AND the money paid for it.
Ask any officer on the pawn beat, most brokers are very enthusiastic to cooperate with authorities, and will often call police and other local shops to give a "heads up" when someone tries to pass suspicious items. No pawnbroker who wants to keep his business open one more day is going to buy anything from anyone they even suspect is a "bad guy."
 @grokyo Re: Re: " The reputable buyers know who the bad guys are and don't buy from them but there are others who don't care - kind of like pawn shops." Â
Hopefully the whole quote clarifies - I am aware of req's for pawn shops and believe that most are well run.  However I also know from being told by the police that there are less reputable shops and that the criminals tend to know where and which they are, these were ones they recommended I visit and physically check for my stolen tools, typically out of the jurisdiction of where they were stolen.  Didn't mean to 'dis the industry as a whole.
"Oftentimes it's used to support drug habits," says Sisson.
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Apparently Deputy Sisson knows more than he's letting on... or he's just talking out his rear. Shame on you KOMO for falsifying headlines in an attempt to dramatize this act of thievery. True factual journalism is giving way to shameless attempts pf faux sensationalism... @Tricia Manning-Smith -- "Author" of this garbage masked as "news"
 @Tattooed_AngelI believe it was the point to catch everyone's attention. This is a serious issue. We can't have people (addicts or whatever) running around chopping our forests down. It gets the word out to potential buyers that there is stolen merchandise on the market and it let's the poachers know that the Sheriff's office is involved. Hopefully it will deter the poachers from continuing if they know there is a real chance of getting caught now. I do agree that unless there is more info than we know there is no reason to assume immediately that it is to support drug habits.
It could have been an unemployed dude trying to put food on the table any way he can. Most hard core drug addicts aren't that industrious, are they? That's a lot of work, plus you need to have your wits about you when using a chainsaw.
 @Insomniac Dreams Oh you'd be surprised what a drug addict or someone in the "drug industry" will do when they want something that's worth a lot of money.
I see ads on Craigslist from people wanting to buy maple. Maybe detectives should look into whose buying this type of product and then maybe, just maybe, they'll find the thieves.
As others have pointed out, there is no link to drugs here other than one guy speculating.Â
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But you put it in the title, and now read all these comments...people assume it's factual.
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Please at least try to respect the journalistic code. All you had to do was give this story an accurate title by omitting the part about the drugs.Â
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Great...now trees are falling victim to support drug dealers? What's next? Underground helium operations managed by drug cartels?
Excuse me? Why do they advertise this? More people are likely to do the same since there are so many drugging idiots in our society.
So they have switched from cedar to maple. A thief is a thief. Same caliber as metal thieves. Scum.
 @Klondiko cedar to maple to tide.
 @Rockberry  @Klondiko Tide?
 @KittySmasher  @Rockberry  @Klondiko From: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/Police-in-Colorado-baffled-by-detergent-thefts-4220334.php "Detergent thefts have also been reported in other parts of the country. Tide in particular has been used as currency for drugs. Experts say it is well-suited for resale on the black market." "Authorities believe thieves are targeting those products because of high prices."
This article is stupid. Plain stupid. The title is stupid. This one guy says he thinks the theft is drug related, and so the title of the article reflects that, and the whole assumption is that the thefts are drug related. But there's nothing at all to suggest this. There is no arrest related to meth, there's no physical connection to drugs. Nothing. Just some guy who says he thinks so.
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Could it be that these thefts are related to high unemployment and have nothing to do with drugs? The thefts are increasing along with an increase in unemployment as well. Or could it be that they're related to global warming? Because these thefts are also increasing along with global warming.
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The only thing factual in this article is that trees are being cut down illegally for money, the rest is all complete speculation, and some of the poorest journalism I've seen in a long time.
 @Bellevue Scott You're right. No one has been charged and it could be someone not involved with drugs, but when I think about the type of people who do this kinda stuff, it's usually the druggies. I'd say 90% chance. The rural areas of western WA. are notorious for meth heads and meth labs. Sad, but true.
 @Bellevue Scott I would add too that the title is misleading and really, incorrect.
@Bellevue Scott
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DING, DING, DING!! WE HAVE A WINNER!! (i.e., somebody who actually reads the article and applies critical thinking to it). I'm no fan of drugs or drug users, but I too noticed that the only reference to drugs in the article was an offhand, speculative comment by one deputy. It's amazing how people commenting here will jump on the bandwagon so easily without thinking.
"Just like a fine wine, the aged wood from the center of a decades-old maple can be used in the handmaking of a violin." - I didn't know you could make a violin out of fine wine.
 @jml "I didn't know you could make a violin out of fine wine."
No, but you can enjoy many bottles of fine wine listening to a fine violin...
The thing about fine wood is that it's beauty lasts a lot longer that the taste of the finest wine.
I'll say it again, meth and opiates are the scurge of society. Just sucks to see so many throwing their lives away. Damn it all.
They used to do that for ceder for shakes when shake roofs were popular.
"Just like copper, find the BUYERS, and you will stop this.  I hate drug addicts, a bunch of self-centered, weak-minded idiots." Â
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Maple wood is available and perfectly legal to buy. Its these specific trees that are illegal to cut down. So how would it be the responsibility of the buyer to know if a batch of maple wood was obtained legally or not?
 @snow surfer From what I understand a seller needs to have a permit to harvest and sell maple and some other so called "specialized forest products". Most, if not all, counties require this. A legitimate buyer is supposed to ask for this permit and record the permit number.
Sigh. Get ready for the banning of chainsaws. Im sure there will be a Chainsaw Exchange coming soon for a Wally World Gift cards..
I live on the island here and there is an official status for this crime and it happens a lot, but nothing this big! Theres also property owned by the different lumber companies around here on the island too. Because these maples are on State property, it will get the perps some major jail time. Lots of these guys here; meth-woodsmen, you can spot them anywhere; no front teeth due to chainsaw accidents, they steal wood here all the time. One day I saw a tree had been illegally cut down off the main road and someone had dragged it across the road and down my road to one of the houses, leaving a scar on the road right to the perp's driveway!
@My-celiums No front teeth due to chain saw accidents? Just how does one knock out their front teeth with a cainsaw?
 @madminer15 "how does one knock out their front teeth with a cainsaw?"
Not hard to do, actually, if you try holding it with one hand and it hits a rock in the wood...
The hard part is not taking off half your face along with the teeth...
 @madminer15 I think he meant no front teeth due to weeks on end of not brushing or flossing, and years of not going to the dentist.
WOW! That just blows me away! These guys can do just about anything! Guess you learn something new every day.
Can or will lead to jail time? Too much legal trepidation for such a violent crime against nature.Â
I will volunteer to sit down there and report this kind of crap. It's ridiculous it even happened, freaking dirt bags.Â
And China is poaching rare rosewood around the world illegally to make into obscenely expensive furniture to sell.Â
don't smoke the tree bark
Look out, them chainsaws have a pistol grip on them......
People say that drugs are a victimless crime...whatever....
 @realdeal599 Along with heath care costs, lost productivity, family impact, and a host of other fallout...
Just like copper, find the BUYERS, and you will stop this. Â I hate drug addicts, a bunch of self-centered, weak-minded idiots.Â
 @DT Maple wood is available and perfectly legal to buy. Its these specific trees that are illegal to cut down. So how would it be the responsibility of the buyer to know if a batch of maple wood was obtained legally or not?
Just give them their drugs for free. Â I'd rather have them willingly destroy their own bodies than see these trees wasted like this.
 @UtterRealityÂ
I agree, but with the stipulation that the initial free dose be of sufficient potency to obviate the need for any further dosing. Â Efficient spending of our hard-earned tax dollars and, after all, every drug addict stops taking drugs eventually anyway. ,Â
Why publish information that these maple trees are valuable and essentially inviting more people to look into cutting more trees.
 @Kim Sorrenson Because it's been known for some years now.
Unfortunately we didn't learn enough here (A-gain...) - would have been nice to have cited an example of the specific parties the druggie woodsman "wood" be selling to, and "woodn't" there be penalties for accepting the stolen tree parts?
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Huh, I learned something new, Maple is often used for musical instruments.Â
@Just my say a few years ago, believe it or not it was Alder. Those are like weeds here on the Kitsap Peninsula.
 @Alikelystorey Didn't know that either. Thanks