Thieves stealing burls from red wood forests

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Crashmph

Crashmph

Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2008
Messages
1,521
Location
South Riding, VA
Xwebktb.jpg

From Reddit Pics: "thieves have been hacking burls from giant trees in Redwood National and State Parks in northern California."
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
This was discussed over on the WoodBarter forum to some extent.
Article apparently stated the 'druggies' were to blame....(or at least some non-informed writer thought as much). I don't think 'druggies' would be using the type of equipment to accomplish this(expensive big bar chainsaws).

I would not purchase Redwood Burl from anywhere after this, don't care if the person selling it is 'legit' or not.....sorry, upping the demand is like stealing myself.





Scott (JMHO, not intended to offend) B
 
When I was in CA a couple of years ago we went to Muir's Woods. The guide said there are no burls left on the trees that they all had been stolen.

Very sad.
 
Burls aren't the only victims. The neighbor of friend of mine lost some large veneer quality black walnut a few years ago. The crooks took two 10 foot sections of several large trees. That's not casual crime. That takes serious equipment and planning.
 
Couple of years back some slime ball was cutting burls off trees from a city park. The only good that came out of it was he was caught.
 
jeff said:
Burls aren't the only victims. The neighbor of friend of mine lost some large veneer quality black walnut a few years ago. The crooks took two 10 foot sections of several large trees. That's not casual crime. That takes serious equipment and planning.
Click to expand...

I totally agrees Jeff, more than 50% of these trees that were to severely butchered, won't survive, their first enemy will the the wind, that will snap them of the base, if they survive that, they will have a slow and agonizing death.

I'm one of those that know EXACTLY, what it takes to remove such large sections of a tree, unless I'm allowed to take the tree down, for whatever the reason may be, I'm incapable of doing such a "barbaric" act, regardless of how much money I was offered or I could make out of its sale, period...!

It really upsets me considerably, I have spend my life time working and dealing with trees and their products, I would be slowly chainsawing their feet off to the criminals that are doing such a thing, I would like to know how they would feel, then...!:mad:

The saddest part of it all is that, pen/wood turners and furniture making all over the world are what cause these things to happen, is the "head" price people are preparing to pay that entices/motivates these criminals to look for the burled trees, put no value to it and the demand/interest disappears.

I don't know what the authorities are doing about the situation but, if they want to, they can trace the wood available for sale at various locations to to the exact trees it came from, there are lad test that can easily identify the wood structure/composition to a specific location/ soil, water types, etc.

I will not buy any wood of the same tree species that have been targeted, and I would invite you to do the same, I wouldn't wanted if was for free, lets these idiots be stuck with it and be afraid of selling at the risk of being traced back, I wouldn't like to have the authorities at my door because a pen or something else I may have done/made, was matched to one of the butchered trees, would you..???

I'm glad that I'm in the position to know exactly from where each piece of wood I've got, come from and how it was removed, I understand that most people rely on others making the wood available to them but, it would be your right and obligation to question any wood that is offered to you that is from the same tree species of those affected by this vicious circle of greediness...!

That's what I thing of all this...!

Cheers
George
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom