Have you ever

[cat-face timber]

Have you ever had some damm wood cutters come to one of your decks of logs and buck off from 2 to 4 feet of every log in the deck? That happened to us a few years ago.
I was driving by a salvage mill today and though about that, and how pissed the owner was and the loaderman was also.

The worst part was, the deck was Ponderosa Pine.

 

[slowp]

It generally occurs during hunting season here. I got into the habit of stapling NO WOODCUTTING signs on every deck the day before hunting season, and that seemed to help. A cedar deck was shrinking in size during huckleberry season so I painted a giant NO on it and put paint all over it, The people who do not speak English seem to be able to read a giant NO. The shrinking cedar stopped.

A logger said if they were going to cut firewood from his decks, he wished they'd just do it a log at a time instead of messing up the whole deck by whacking off the ends.

Firewood cutters can be a pain.

 

[madhatte]

My favorite are the guys who drop green trees across the road, take only what's needed to buck the road clear for their truck, then move up the road a piece and repeat until the truck is full. I've seen some UGLY stumps, too, and have NO idea how these fools haven't earned themselves any Darwin Awards. Fun thing is how a stump is like a signature, and I can tell "who" the thief is by their stump. I mean, we only catch 'em once in awhile, but I have a list in my head of stump styles and where I've seen them, so if we ever do catch a given thief, I'll be able to estimate their total damage.

 

[paccity]

don't know why its so hard not to just keep a permit with you,. if you can afford the gas to drive upin the woods you can get a tag. when i go boondockin i usually take a load out . but i'm leagal. deck thieves just piss off everyone.

 

[Gologit]

We don't get too much wood theft. Our logging is usually so far from the pavement that most thieves don't want to go through the hassle. Pine and fir aren't that attractive to them when there's oak and madrone around.

During hunting season there are usually watchmen around...not so much for wood thieves but to keep vandals away from the equipment and to watch for fires.


On our own ground we do have an occasional problem with oak thieves. If we're opening up old roads or cutting new ones we set the oak aside for eventual sale to commercial firewood outfits or chippers. Most of the oak thieves are city folk that just don't seem to understand that they're on private property and those nice logs laying along side the road or in little decks actually belong to somebody.
What we usually do when we find one is wait 'til they get a good load all cut. If they're splitting, that's even better. We'll drive over to where they are and let them know they're trespassing. All of our roads and gates are heavily posted so it's always fun when they claim not to have known where they were. We explain that we can get a deputy sheriff up there to explain things to them and cite them for theft or they can just go on home and promise not to come back. Unless they give us any guff or or threaten us we usually just let them go.
The wood stays, of course. And, since it no longer has any commercial value we usually split it among ourselves. Saves a lot of woodcutting effort on our part. :msp_wink:

 

[RPM]

Had a deck of bridge stringers and sill logs for a log stringer bridge cut up once. They were dropped off on Friday to be installed on the Monday following and somehow they all ended up 8-12' shorter than what the drawings called for over the weekend. Big stuff - 40' 28"" dia. on the small end. That was a major p*ss off as it took a couple of weeks to source that size of log again. Mostly use concrete deck and steel stringer bridges now

We usually leave sacrificial piles with "Firewood" painted on it for the firewood types. Usually a load of snags nice and dry seems to work to keep them out of the log decks. Either that or we block the road a mile from the landing with a skidder or other piece of iron.

 

[Samlock]

I don't recall any cases. We have "the Backwoods Law" preventing such an activity. Theft is considered to be the worst crime against the code.

Well, tradition tells that thieves are usually treated this way: A long stick is put through the villain's sleeves and hands tied. Then he is forced to run home across the woods, arms spread. It's not that easy journey in a dense stand. A lot easier to go to the police and confess the whole thing.

 

[Gologit]

I don't recall any cases. We have "the Backwoods Law" preventing such an activity. Theft is considered to be the worst crime against the code.

Well, tradition tells that thieves are usually treated this way: A long stick is put through the villain's sleeves and hands tied. Then he is forced to run home across the woods, arms spread. It's not that easy journey in a dense stand. A lot easier to go to the police and confess the whole thing.

Do you spray him with log marking paint, too? That's been known to happen. Sometimes their vehicle gets sprayed a little, just for easy identification.

 

[Samlock]

Do you spray him with log marking paint, too? That's been known to happen. Sometimes their vehicle gets sprayed a little, just for easy identification.

As I said, stealing is very rare in the woods. I have never witnessed a court of the Backwoods Law in action. I guess the local people have internalized the code over the centuries. I keep my chainsaws and other gear in the woods in case I am working on a plot longer than a day. Nothing has ever disappeared and it has not even crossed my mind someone would steal it. Yet, spraying a person sounds a good idea, in theory. I would favor a hatchet for marking a vehicle, though.

 

[madhatte]

Whoo! Around here, a saw left out overnight is a saw you'll never see again. I guess Tweekers are an American invention?

 

[paccity]

hell, i'd be afraid to leave my truck parked for a length of time. but most tweekers can't afored to drive very far out. i hope.

 

[ChrisF]

As I said, stealing is very rare in the woods.

You're from Finland, or am I guessing wrong?

 

[Samlock]

You got that one right, ChrisF!

I had to consult my dictionary for Tweeker... Oh yes, we have plenty of spry citizens around here too. In the cities and towns things tend to get lost in no time. In the woods it is different.

 

[ChrisF]

I had to consult my dictionary for Tweeker... Oh yes, we have plenty of spry citizens around here too. In the cities and towns things tend to get lost in no time. In the woods it is different.

Tweeker is a "meth-head" or amphetamine-user if you may. I assume it's used as slang for all sorts of drug-abusing criminal scumbags that can't contribute to society worth a damn.

 

[Gologit]

Whoo! Around here, a saw left out overnight is a saw you'll never see again. I guess Tweekers are an American invention?

We leave our saws stashed in the brush sometimes but we're usually quite a ways back in the woods too.

Tweakers will steal anything. Anything. We were grabbing our coffee at 7-11 early one morning when a meth monster on a bicycle took an 066 right off the saw rack in the back of my pickup...36' bar and all. Watching him go wobbling off on his bike, trying to balance that saw, was almost comical. We chased him down, which wasn't real hard, and I grabbed the saw at the same time my partner shoved a winch bar through the front tire spokes on the bike. The bike went end over end and my partner peeled the rider off of the asphalt. The tweaker had some serious road rash, several extra lumps from falling down on the way back up to the store, and his bicycle got run over by four or five other people. The store owner called the cops...after a while.
We gave the tweaker to the deputies that showed up but he fell down a lot in the meantime. It took the deputies quite awhile to get there.
I know...the way we dealt with him wasn't sociologically correct, I'm aware that the man had a serious substance abuse problem, and I'm sure more enlightened people would have handled the situation differently. We did what was appropriate considering our limited resources and lack of formal training in dealing with substance abusers.

Sometimes it's good to be just a logger.

 

[ChrisF]

Sometimes it's good to be just a logger.

I like how you handled that.

Substance abuse isn't an excuse to go being a thieving douchebag, tho. I got a couple of friends who are productive, hard-working guys who have different kinds of substance abuse problems.

A thief is a thief is a thief.

To heck with'em!

 

[Gologit]

I like how you handled that.

Substance abuse isn't an excuse to go being a thieving douchebag, tho. I got a couple of friends who are productive, hard-working guys who have different kinds of substance abuse problems.

A thief is a thief is a thief.

To heck with'em!

Yup. It's a special problem around here...lots of meth labs, lots of dope-related crime...you know the routine. California has decided that drug abusers aren't necessarily criminals and consequently they have to do something really serious to draw any jail time.

I am sorry that they have a problem and I'd help one if he was trying to help himself. But when they steal from me a different set of rules apply.

I wish somebody would have video'd that guy trying to ride his bike and carry that saw at the same time. We were laughing so hard it was difficult to run...try it sometime.

 

[Samlock]

I know...the way we dealt with him wasn't sociologically correct, I'm aware that the man had a serious substance abuse problem, and I'm sure more enlightened people would have handled the situation differently. We did what was appropriate considering our limited resources and lack of formal training in dealing with substance abusers.

That was a sosiologically correct treatment. It's better to overkill it a bit, than do nothing. For the benefit of the whole fraternity. That funny little motorhead will think twice before messing around with a logger again.

 

[Oldtimer]

I block my landings off with the skidder. No more theft.

 

[wvlogger]

i am a firewood cutter and love cutting out of slash piles but i always make sure i can before i just show up and start cutting. And in doing that have made a pretty good name for my self and get allot of clean clean up jobs of wood and even scrap steal the skidder operator finds.