Birch Theft
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Minnesota and Wisconsin losing thousands of birch trees to thieves
John Myers
PUBLISHED: March 30, 2017 at 8:14 am
DULUTH, Minn. — Law enforcement officials in northern Wisconsin and northern Minnesota say there’s been a recent rash of illegal cutting of small birch trees that are smuggled out and sold as decorations in stores and online.
It’s not just a few trees, but thousands of small birch cut, bundled and carted away off public and private forests without any payment or permits.
Small birch trees like these, generally three inches in diameter or less, are being targeted by thieves and sold for interior home decorations. Bob King/Forum News Service
The trees and limbs are making their way to wholesalers and then on to retailers where they are sold at stores and online as rustic northwoods decorations for homes and events, especially weddings.
Lt. Shelly Patton, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer district supervisor, said she submitted a case to the St. Louis County attorney’s office Wednesday for prosecution regarding an illegal birch-cutting operation in the Aurora and Tower areas. Patton said birch were cut in recent months on several tracts of state and Superior National Forest land.
The thefts started popping up in northwestern Wisconsin last fall and continued over the winter.
“I counted about 1,800 cut in just one area. And they have been hitting a lot of different spots,” said Buck Pettingill, a Washburn County forester who said the problem grew to “epidemic” proportions over the past year. “It’s stealing, plain and simple. And it’s causing a lot of damage in the forest.”
Even bundles of birch twigs are being cut and offered for sale. It appears buyers want birch cut during fall and winter months, before sap starts running, Pettingill said.
“Birch theft has become the new trend in northwest Wisconsin,” said Mike Richter, chief deputy of the Washburn County Sheriff’s Office, on the sheriff’s Facebook page. “Thefts are occurring on county and state forests as well as on private property.”
Unlike loggers that haul large trees on big trucks, the birch thieves are hauling small saplings in pickups and trailers. Richter urged the public to call 911 if they see any of those loads of small birch moving on the road.
“Please call anytime of the day or night, as some of these folks are cutting during the day and hauling at night,” he said.
Pettingill spent a weekend looking for birch thieves, and managed to catch three suspects cramming freshly cut bundles of birch sticks into a car along a remote forest road. Charges are pending against the three Hayward-area men for timber theft.
“We’re talking a lot of timber that’s been stolen. Those 1,800 trees would be about 60 cords of birch when they got big. At $40 cord, that adds up,” Pettingill said.
Dave Zebo, Wisconsin conservation warden for the Spooner region, said county, state and Chequamegon National Forest foresters and law enforcement officers will meet next week to share information and make plans on how to combat the birch thefts.
“They seem to be targeting mostly county and national forest land. There’s been some significant biological damage,” he said.
Zebro said officials may be contacting wholesale birch buyers in the region to make sure they know they are buying limbs from legitimate sources. Wholesale buyers are posting birch-wanted ads on Craigslist, paying between $1 and $3 per pole.
Birches cut by people to sell on eBay. (Courtesy of Washburn County Sheriff via Forum News Service)
It’s clear there’s a market for the product — mostly small birch saplings, about two inches in diameter, in two- to six-foot lengths.
Menards sells a 66-inch birch “pole” online for $6.99. Crate & Barrel’s website offers three birch poles each 60 inches long for $29.95 plus shipping. On Amazon you can buy four 48-inch poles for $45.99. On eBay those poles run from $20 to $40. A website called Blooms & Branches sells a half-dozen six-foot-long birch poles for $57.42 and a bundle of birch twigs for $11.97.
Those sellers may well be obtaining their birch pieces from legal harvesters. As of now it’s not known where the illegal birch is being sold or to whom, Zebo said.
Birch aren’t the only trees targeted by thieves. There have been several cases in recent years of illegal cutting of spruce tree tops from public lands in northern Minnesota to sell as Christmas decorations.
In January Joseph Edminster of Grand Rapids pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing the tops of 2,700 black spruce trees from the Chippewa National Forest. Edminster took the trees between 2008 and 2014, selling them to wholesalers for up to $2.50 each. The trees were then sold to retailers for $6 each, prosecutors said, and then sold to shoppers in urban areas for even more.
Philbert
John Myers
PUBLISHED: March 30, 2017 at 8:14 am
DULUTH, Minn. — Law enforcement officials in northern Wisconsin and northern Minnesota say there’s been a recent rash of illegal cutting of small birch trees that are smuggled out and sold as decorations in stores and online.
It’s not just a few trees, but thousands of small birch cut, bundled and carted away off public and private forests without any payment or permits.
Small birch trees like these, generally three inches in diameter or less, are being targeted by thieves and sold for interior home decorations. Bob King/Forum News Service
The trees and limbs are making their way to wholesalers and then on to retailers where they are sold at stores and online as rustic northwoods decorations for homes and events, especially weddings.
Lt. Shelly Patton, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer district supervisor, said she submitted a case to the St. Louis County attorney’s office Wednesday for prosecution regarding an illegal birch-cutting operation in the Aurora and Tower areas. Patton said birch were cut in recent months on several tracts of state and Superior National Forest land.
The thefts started popping up in northwestern Wisconsin last fall and continued over the winter.
“I counted about 1,800 cut in just one area. And they have been hitting a lot of different spots,” said Buck Pettingill, a Washburn County forester who said the problem grew to “epidemic” proportions over the past year. “It’s stealing, plain and simple. And it’s causing a lot of damage in the forest.”
Even bundles of birch twigs are being cut and offered for sale. It appears buyers want birch cut during fall and winter months, before sap starts running, Pettingill said.
“Birch theft has become the new trend in northwest Wisconsin,” said Mike Richter, chief deputy of the Washburn County Sheriff’s Office, on the sheriff’s Facebook page. “Thefts are occurring on county and state forests as well as on private property.”
Unlike loggers that haul large trees on big trucks, the birch thieves are hauling small saplings in pickups and trailers. Richter urged the public to call 911 if they see any of those loads of small birch moving on the road.
“Please call anytime of the day or night, as some of these folks are cutting during the day and hauling at night,” he said.
Pettingill spent a weekend looking for birch thieves, and managed to catch three suspects cramming freshly cut bundles of birch sticks into a car along a remote forest road. Charges are pending against the three Hayward-area men for timber theft.
“We’re talking a lot of timber that’s been stolen. Those 1,800 trees would be about 60 cords of birch when they got big. At $40 cord, that adds up,” Pettingill said.
Dave Zebo, Wisconsin conservation warden for the Spooner region, said county, state and Chequamegon National Forest foresters and law enforcement officers will meet next week to share information and make plans on how to combat the birch thefts.
“They seem to be targeting mostly county and national forest land. There’s been some significant biological damage,” he said.
Zebro said officials may be contacting wholesale birch buyers in the region to make sure they know they are buying limbs from legitimate sources. Wholesale buyers are posting birch-wanted ads on Craigslist, paying between $1 and $3 per pole.
Birches cut by people to sell on eBay. (Courtesy of Washburn County Sheriff via Forum News Service)
It’s clear there’s a market for the product — mostly small birch saplings, about two inches in diameter, in two- to six-foot lengths.
Menards sells a 66-inch birch “pole” online for $6.99. Crate & Barrel’s website offers three birch poles each 60 inches long for $29.95 plus shipping. On Amazon you can buy four 48-inch poles for $45.99. On eBay those poles run from $20 to $40. A website called Blooms & Branches sells a half-dozen six-foot-long birch poles for $57.42 and a bundle of birch twigs for $11.97.
Those sellers may well be obtaining their birch pieces from legal harvesters. As of now it’s not known where the illegal birch is being sold or to whom, Zebo said.
Birch aren’t the only trees targeted by thieves. There have been several cases in recent years of illegal cutting of spruce tree tops from public lands in northern Minnesota to sell as Christmas decorations.
In January Joseph Edminster of Grand Rapids pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing the tops of 2,700 black spruce trees from the Chippewa National Forest. Edminster took the trees between 2008 and 2014, selling them to wholesalers for up to $2.50 each. The trees were then sold to retailers for $6 each, prosecutors said, and then sold to shoppers in urban areas for even more.
Philbert
Jason Douglas
ArboristSite Guru
Good grief.
Just get the retailers to show chain of custody documentation to ensure permits and fees have been paid. No chain of custody, fine the retailers. Once Lowes or HD gets dinged for this a couple times, the problem will dry up.
Theft is theft.
Philbert
Philbert
If you stop the fence, the motivation to steal is eliminated.
I'm willing to bet there are landowners who would PAY to have the birch thinned in their woods.
Morons.
Chain of custody sounds nice, but it is not that easy...even for something with as little processing as this goes through. The one cutting the poles, hauling them, packaging the logs and retailing the logs also have to maintain that chain...AND (most importantly), the end user has to actually care enough to both demand that certification and be willing to pay for the certification. With traditional wood products when the big push to have them certified the demand came from non-market forces (few buyers cared...and even fewer - by far - were willing to pay). The sawmills, by and large, are the ones eating the cost in that scam. There isn't a large body within the chain on a product like these birch poles that is going to absorb the costs like the sawmills did with the stupid stuff that went down in the late 90's with forest product certification.
If there are buyers who do care, they'll feel warm and fuzzy when the ebay seller says "responsibly sourced materials".
Next thing we'll all see is people expecting us to pay them to prune and/or remove the birch trees in their yards!
Morons.
Chain of custody sounds nice, but it is not that easy...even for something with as little processing as this goes through. The one cutting the poles, hauling them, packaging the logs and retailing the logs also have to maintain that chain...AND (most importantly), the end user has to actually care enough to both demand that certification and be willing to pay for the certification. With traditional wood products when the big push to have them certified the demand came from non-market forces (few buyers cared...and even fewer - by far - were willing to pay). The sawmills, by and large, are the ones eating the cost in that scam. There isn't a large body within the chain on a product like these birch poles that is going to absorb the costs like the sawmills did with the stupid stuff that went down in the late 90's with forest product certification.
If there are buyers who do care, they'll feel warm and fuzzy when the ebay seller says "responsibly sourced materials".
Next thing we'll all see is people expecting us to pay them to prune and/or remove the birch trees in their yards!
ChoppyChoppy
Tree Freak
60 cords at $40 a cord... $2400... so a days pay for the big wig .gov folks crying about it.
Was involved with building a house a few years ago, the designer needed birch logs for decorative gas fireplace. Went home, cut the tree down, left the smaller sprouts at the base. Got paid for the logs and today, 6 years later, I have a new 20' clump birch waiting for the next harvest!
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