Letters to the Editors - Winter 2005
Timber Theft a Hot Topic
To the Editors:
It’s always appreciated when publications such as Northern Woodlands highlight the work of state forestry agencies. Unfortunately, the recent article on timber theft in Maine, “To Catch a (Timber) Thief” (Autumn 2005) provided little context about forestry in Maine, the role of loggers, and the work of the Maine Forest Service. As a result, readers may not have gotten a full picture of all three.
Professional loggers play a vital role in Maine’s forestry community. Approximately 520,000 acres of Maine’s forests are logged every year in thousands of individual harvests. The common denominator in every harvest is a logger. By contrast, the Maine Forest Service investigates a relatively small number of cases of illegal logging every year. Most loggers are honest, hardworking people. In fact, Maine loggers are setting the pace for loggers nationwide with efforts such as the Certified Logging Professional Program, the Master Logger Program of the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine, and others, all of which emphasize logger education and professionalism. Though a handful of loggers will act unethically or illegally, they do not represent the whole – yet the article did little to present that context.
The Maine Forest Service helps landowners identify ways to enjoy and better manage their property and to work with professional foresters and loggers successfully. Planning and implementing a timber harvest, particularly in the context of long-term stewardship of the land, is much more complex than simply avoiding “being ripped off.” The Maine Forest Service recommends that prudent landowners approach these decisions – including whom to work with – with at least equal care as they would any other business enterprise or relationship.
Maine Forest Service Rangers are involved in fire control and suppression, working with fire departments, providing education about wildfire, enforcing the Forest Practices Act (which regulates clearcutting), and monitoring harvesting activity for a range of natural resource issues. Timber theft and trespass investigations are not the primary activity of most Forest Rangers.
Timber theft is an important issue in Maine. However, the Northern Woodlands article failed to note that a very small number of loggers – and others – are involved in the vast majority of this activity. The Maine Forest Service investigates timber theft to help protect landowners, but also to help support the many loggers who operate legally and ethically. The additional enforcement tools developed by involved attorneys and Forest Rangers are geared to this end – not to burden legitimate operators.
Many people are working to improve the forestry industry. Professional loggers are partners with Maine Forest Service and many others in that effort. Northern Woodlands could have highlighted this basic fact and presented a more balanced view, of considerably greater value to its readers.
R. Alec Giffen, Augusta, Maine
Alec Giffen is the director of the Maine Forest Service.
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Timber Theft a Hot Topic
To the Editors:
Kudos to Northern Woodlands for covering timber theft. It seems that this crime has been the subject of greater attention in the eastern U.S. over the last decade or so, and some of the perpetrators now enjoy housing at taxpayer expense. This is good news for victims and reputable loggers. For far too long this serious criminal activity went unnoticed by enforcement authorities. The lack of enforcement emboldened the few who have made a career of timber theft. Now let’s hope the tables are turning.
The many professional loggers I have known and respected in my 30 years as a consulting forester hold these renegades in contempt for the black eye given their entire profession. Timber thieves are able to undercut reputable operators by dumping stolen logs on the market. They profit at the expense of the reputable logger and victimize the landowner. I also appreciate those mills that scrutinize their gatewood vendors and the source of their logs. When stolen timber can’t find a market, these thieves will have to find other “work.”
Prosecuting this crime is not easy. The unique nature of the timber resource and its theft – different species, different products, wide-ranging values for these products, boundary law, and rules of evidence – requires special training in forestry as well as law enforcement. It just can’t be done by the local police, no matter how gung-ho they might be to prosecute. I’ve seen a positive trend in New Hampshire to staff and train its forest rangers to handle these crimes. But I’d like to see more convictions. I’ve concluded that some who engage in this activity are pathologically criminal and won’t stop stealing timber until they are behind bars.
Now, the challenge is to educate the judiciary as to the seriousness of this crime. Everyone understands the value involved when a thief steals a Porsche. It’s easy to convey to a jury the details of a bank heist. But timber is different and the values not as readily understood. I’ve seen thefts of tens of thousands of dollars of timber when the unscrupulous logger targets only the highest value trees across a remote boundary line. We need public agencies with a tenacity to pursue these criminals and judges and county attorneys willing to prosecute these financial crimes with the same zeal and vigor they direct at car theft and bank robbery.
I appreciate the enforcement efforts of the public sector in pursuit of the relatively few criminals in our business as well as the efforts of the professional associations who have done such a great job raising the standards and improving the safety, productivity, and profitability of the many good, honest, reputable loggers across the region. And I encourage Northern Woodlands to keep a light shining on these crimes and those who perpetrate them. Thanks for covering this topic.
Dennis McKenney, Bennington, New Hampshire
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Timber Theft a Hot Topic
To the Editors:
How unfortunate Cindy Hill did not talk to any “non-rogue loggers.”
We call the loggers identified in Ms. Hill’s article criminals, not loggers, similar to any forest professional doing unethical practices to landowners. If only she had been interested in writing this article when the activities were taking place in the 1990s, when the professional loggers were discouraged and defeated by the criminals making money cutting every possible corner, rather than bringing up the past as if nothing has changed.
I assume Ms. Hill and the Maine Rangers want to be certain that people always know the “monster in the forest” must be a rogue logger; certainly not a rogue forester, or rogue ranger, or rogue landowner, or rogue procurement person. No matter what loggers try to accomplish, we are targeted as the problem, and everyone else is in positions of watch-dogging those terrible loggers who can’t be trusted. Watch out, the monsters in the forest are loggers! Believe me, no one who read the article will remember the names of the rogue loggers, just the term “logger.”
We started Master Logger Certification in Maine to combat these issues when no one else was interested in solutions: neither attorneys nor attorney generals. Ethical loggers were delivering wood that was harvested with regard to the Forest Practices Act and watching the criminals receiving the same prices for rogue or illegal wood. Some loggers would be glad to do what the Maine Rangers were afraid to do, name names about who those markets were and are. One of the reasons end users of paper are asking for chain of custody certification and accountability from the tree forward is the fact that gatewood cannot be traced for sustainability and monitoring. Truckers collect wood they never cut or know if it was legally cut and put it under their number. Criminals would not make the effort if there were not markets – let’s be real.
I received 41 calls from Maine professional loggers in relation to the article. They were sick at heart that, yet again, no one can write the article that shows how much they have accomplished in reinventing the profession and providing a continuous improvement attitude towards the environment. Are we perfect? No; the difference is that we want to be perfect and are working hard to accomplish good work. We intend to be the finest professionals in the world with environmental integrity embedded in the legacy forests of Maine. This is a noble goal for a determined profession, and we have taken action to make this a reality.
I am sorry Ms. Hill does not know the men and women I know and decided to use her excellent writing and investigating skills to remind all of us who read the magazine what the criminals do rather than balance that with positive gains of professionals.
In the 1990s, Maine loggers were the sharecroppers of a hierarchical supply chain, at the bottom, dispensable, a dime a dozen. They no longer think of themselves in that frustrating and demeaning way. Excellent new partnerships with industry and the end users of paper are changing this outdated model of management. Seems some people have not liked this empowerment process. Too bad! Loggers will not be blamed and castigated en masse on my watch. Do not insult and define professionals by a few criminals ever again. It is not fair or balanced.
Sandy Brawders, Fort Kent, Maine
Sandy Brawders is executive director of Professional Logging Contractors of Maine and the Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands.
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Timber Theft a Hot Topic
To the Editors:
I read with great interest Cindy Hill’s article, “To Catch A (Timber) Thief: Maine Forest Rangers Pursue Rogue Loggers,” in your Autumn 2005 issue. The article was very informative, but I believe it is incorrect in one point. There is no mandatory notification requirement of municipalities and adjoining landowners. The mandatory notification is with the Maine Forest Service, which will send a copy of the notification to the municipality. There is no requirement to notify adjoining landowners. Even so, it is a good idea to do so.
Jake Maier, Brewer, Maine
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Timber Theft a Hot Topic
To the Editors:
I wanted to thank you for your article on timber theft. Although this does not happen often in Vermont and most loggers and foresters today are trustworthy, it still does happen. I have worked as a consulting forester for the past 18 years here in Vermont and wanted to share my experiences in the past 10 years on this subject.
Four of my clients, all of whom own small, backyard woodlots, have had timber removed without their permission. One property was in the village limits. There were a number of things that each of these cases had in common and they are as follows: the adjoining landowners were having logging done; just one tree of very high value was taken from each landowner; property lines were clearly marked with either stone walls, paint, blazes, flagging, or a combination of marks; all of the cut trees were at least 20 feet over a clearly marked property line; all the trees were felled toward the property line; and in three out of the four cases, all of the branches ended up on the neighbor’s land where the log job was taking place. The only evidence left on my clients’ land was a 4-inch-high stump. In one case, leaves were also piled over the cut stump to hide it – very sneaky. I personally found each stump while walking the property lines. No one had come forward and admitted making an error by cutting over the marked property line.
The trees were either sugar maple or black cherry, which are our highest valued wood. All were large enough to bring high veneer prices. Any one of these trees could have potentially been sold for $500 to $1,000 or more. In each case, I located the loggers or forester who supervised the work and collected stumpage money for my client.
My advice to landowners is keep your property lines well marked and walk them once a year or have someone do it for you. If your neighbor is having logging done, walk the lines during and after the log job.
Patrick Bartlett, Woodstock, Vermont
The Editors respond:
We believe that Cindy Hill’s story makes it clear that of the thousands of loggers who harvest trees for a living, only a small percentage are timber thieves. While we think that most people will understand that from reading the story, we are pleased to have the opportunity to state that fact here even more explicitly.
That is not to say, however, that timber theft is a small problem. We tackled this story because the activities of these criminals continue to be a serious problem, due largely to the difficulty in getting a conviction, which was the major focus of the story. The value of trees stolen each year in New England and New York is estimated to measure in the millions of dollars. With timber values increasing and land changing hands at an unprecedented pace, theft could become an even bigger problem. To counter that problem, landowners need to know how timber theft occurs so they can protect themselves. And prosecutors across the region need to take the problem as seriously as do those whose work was highlighted in the story.
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