Timber thieves leave trail of destruction

WHITESBURG, Ky. -- The crime scene: once-wooded land marked by tire tracks and tree stumps.

"It's just like someone cut your heart out," says Verna Potter, 77, who lost an estimated $50,000 worth of generations-old oak trees, which were taken from her property and sold, without permission, while she was away.

Rogue loggers have long preyed on private properties from coast to coast, taking advantage of the elderly, the absent or — in Potter's case — both. They traditionally had little to fear from law enforcement officials hesitant to pursue criminal charges, instead chalking up most complaints to property disputes. But as timber values rise, so have the stakes for landowners.

"The authorities who have dealt with it as a property matter are starting to look at it as more of a criminal matter," said Joseph Phaneuf, executive director of the Northeastern Loggers' Association.

In recent years, there's been a steady movement to curb illegal logging. Some states, such as Mississippi and Virginia, have established specific timber-theft laws, making illegal logging on private property a felony punishable by jail time. New York started timber theft-prevention campaigns that warn property owners of the common claims thieves make when caught red-handed.

In Kentucky, the problem has resulted in the formation of the Appalachian Roundtable, a non-profit that joins forestry experts, attorneys, law enforcement and victims to alert landowners to logging scams and pursue criminal charges against timber thieves. The group is drafting legislation to be introduced in the 2008 Kentucky General Assembly to make timber theft a felony punishable by a prison sentence.

With foreign demand for North American hardwoods growing, theft has become a more costly issue for private landowners, whose tree farms and woodlands make up 55% of U.S. timber production, forestry officials say. Few track cases nationwide, but a 2003 Virginia Tech University study estimated that landowners lose in excess of $4 million to timber thieves each year in the otherwise poor but hardwood-rich Appalachian states.

Domestic prices for hardwoods, such as cherry, walnut and white oak, have increased about 10% over the past decade, according to analysts, but the demand overseas, especially in China and southeast Asia, has increased substantially over the past few years.

A common timber thief is an experienced logger with a small crew, said Jonathan Callore, assistant law enforcement chief of the South Carolina Forestry Commission. "They'll go into the courthouse and find out who has a local address and who has an absentee address, and go and cut on the property."

Potter suspects she was targeted that way. A couple of years ago, she and her husband moved in with her grown children in Ohio. She only visits her 25-acre property a few times a year. A nephew who lives adjacent to her property notified her of the theft.

The case is slated for a grand jury next month, though it still brings Potter little satisfaction. "Thirty-two oak trees that have been there for years," she said. "It was my turn to give them to my son and daughter, but you can't replace those."