Arson, how widespread is it.

[shokidq]

This is how our summer went.
It's been a while since I posted on the forum was just wondering how widespread Arson attacks on machinery is.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/logsnstuff/sets/72157645521436543/

 

[Gologit]

I can't speak for everyone but we haven't had an arson related equipment fire in a long time. The black smoke draws too much attention too quick.
Equipment sabotage is usually more vandalism than actual destruction...holes shot in windows, belts and hoses cut, batteries stolen, that kind of thing. It's not as common as it used to be.

 

[Reddog]

Seems around here most Arson results in a nice shiny new machine.


Doesn't seem to happen very often, once every few years.

 

[BeatCJ]

I can't speak for everyone but we haven't had an arson related equipment fire in a long time... ...It's not as common as it used to be.

Nope, pretty rare right now. I know a lot of sides are using full time watchmen around here, though.

 

[Spotted Owl]

Around us it stopped when they moved that Tre Arrow freak, into the local Federal bed and breakfast down the road. A very public Eco terrorism, vandalism and fire bombing trial and conviction went a long ways to put and end to what was becoming a familiar problem.

I wish they would've kept him longer than they did.

Looking at your pictures I would say that whoever did this knew what they were doing. Cab destroyed, but a fire not big enough to get into the wood or even damage the rubber on the machine. Seems to me strategic and targeted.

I hope this goes as well as possible for you.



Owl

 

[shokidq]

this happened back at the start of July, fire brigade didn't even want to put the fire out they were going to just let it burn and make sure it didn't spread, had to spell it out to them in short words that it wasn't insured and we needed to get max salvage from it. I think you are correct that they new what they were doing now the long grass is dying down we found one of the extinguishers had been removed from the cab and thrown 20 30ft away, so presumably they knew about the automatic system and how to disable it.

 

[AKDoug]

I see you are in Scotland. Guess it proves scumbags are universal. The equipment vandalism stopped cold around here when guys started hiding game cameras around their stuff. Being able to identify the perps and sic the cops on them worked well. For the couple the cops didn't go after, their slashed tires with a copy of their face in a photo stuck under the wiper blade got the message across.

 

[1270d]

There was several pieces burned here in the last year or two. Guys were clearing on and around a controversial new mine. From what I have heard all were arson. Word was that some pros had been shipped in by the mine protest group.

 

[hammerlogging]

That's really angering and I'm sorry to see it.

We had watchman at each side where I worked in West Virginia.

One of the nicest loggers I know was vandalized a few weeks ago, busted windows and such. But I think that was just punks more than punks with a particular mission.

Thoughtless ignorance.

 

[lmbrman]

Couple years back some guys decided to light up the woods I was working in, they were volunteer firefighters and wanted to collect pay. This is no way reflects all the hardworking people who do this job everyday, just a few bad eggs. There were caught eventually and pled guilty. We got the equipment out in time, but the damages to timber cost them plenty- seemed they thought it was 'just some trees'. The timber was appraised at four times stumpage under WI law, same as timber theft. It was actually worse than theft, because it was early summer and would draw in beetle infestation, destroying the entire stand if left stand half burned and dead. The damage had to be cut out quickly.

Papermill would not accept the wood on account of the carbon in the fiber. Fortunately most of the timber could go to a local sawmill as they saw down to 6" diameter.

That same parcel has been set on fire three times on purpose since 1990, each time several acres was lost. The entire section was leveled by fire in the 60's.

I know of two cases of equipment arson here in the last 15 years, really not much considering the logging activity level here.

 

[imagineero]

I do recall reading that back in the day setting fire to timber stands was all the rage with guys who got paid to put the fires out. Sorry to hear about your loss, hope you can make some good salvage and get something going again. Puts me in mind of the monkey wrench gang.

 

[No Regerts]

It's not as common as it used to be.

Neither are trees.

 

[Gologit]

I do recall reading that back in the day setting fire to timber stands was all the rage with guys who got paid to put the fires out. Sorry to hear about your loss, hope you can make some good salvage and get something going again. Puts me in mind of the monkey wrench gang.

We had a case of that here a few years back. One of the leading contractors of fire fighting equipment decided to create some work for himself. He set a fire in the woods and probably would have got away with it except for one thing. In the process of lighting the fire he also caught his truck on fire, effectively stranding him where he was until the fire units arrived.
That and the fact that he was drunk enough not to be able to think of a coherent excuse for his presence and the very obvious signs of origin kinda doomed him. When he was carrying the gas cans from his truck to the woods they leaked. They leaked quite a bit. The highway flare he used for ignition also ignited the leak path and the gas that had leaked in the bed of his truck. The highway flare didn't burn completely either and was found on the edge of the burn. With his finger prints on it.
He did some jail time for that little stunt and he's no longer a fire contractor.

 

[madhatte]

Neither are trees.

This is a common misunderstanding. It turns out that in both the US and in Europe, deforestation was at its peak around 1900 and has reversed to about 1700 levels in the last century. While it's true that the logging on the west coast of the US has rolled through a peak and tapered off within that time, the real deforestation was during the westward expansion as timberland was cleared for agriculture in the Midwest. Western forestland has, for the most part, remained forested. Furthermore, young trees accumulate carbon much faster than old ones do, so our young forests are going to be a major asset in curtailing anthropogenic climate change in the future. Timber has always been a renewable resource. It will continue to be so.

 

[Gologit]

Well said.

 

[madhatte]

Thank you!

 

[peakbagger]

After the Monkeywrench gang book came out regarding logging out west, our area out in NH had a disciple who lived in the area. There were several suspicious acts of deliberate vandalism. The individuals home burned down one night to the ground and he left the area and many of the problems went away.

 

[1270d]

how unfortunate

 

[Gologit]

After the Monkeywrench gang book came out regarding logging out west, our area out in NH had a disciple who lived in the area. There were several suspicious acts of deliberate vandalism. The individuals home burned down one night to the ground and he left the area and many of the problems went away.

Hayduke lives?

 

[hammerlogging]

Yeah, perhaps the Hayduke with an evolved environmental ethic, the one that can grasp the bigger picture