Using DNA against timber theifs

[northmanlogging]

that whopper maple stick for the record

 

[Hddnis]

From what I have seen it's like anything in the forest, profit comes from margin and real money comes from quantity.

Single people cutting burls are not making all that much money. The guy paying pennies to 60 people for 3000 burls and then selling them overseas is making the money. Usually tax free if you know what I mean.

One of my customers had a business taking burls and making them into clocks, tables, cup holders, etc. He bought from wholesalers who bought from harvesters. He would occasionally buy direct from tree companies and loggers that he knew if they had something nice. I sold him one or two, but most of what we found wasn't worth the trouble for maybe $40

 

[Hddnis]

Been around logging for 30 plus years now, always hear stories about $20000 figured trees (just for 10' of the butt).

Have yet to meet ANYONE thats actually been paid such. Its always a guy in the county over, or a neighbors cousins uncle etc.

Hauled an 8'6" dia maple butt log for a guy, full of figure, direct to the Korean buyers, he got $2500 for it.

Now thats not sayin that figured maple isn't worth some money, just not the mythical $200 per BF that has been thrown about for decades.

I have people all the time that want me to take down a single tree for them. "So and so said it's 3000bf and worth $3600."

I tell them to sell it to the first person that will write them a check. If they want me to take the tree down I will charge X amount.

Then they get some friend who needs firewood to cut it down for "free" for the wood. But he drops it on the power lines and the power company bills $12,000. The homeowners insurance pays and the homeowner has the gall to say to my face that he got a better deal than hiring me to cut down and clean up the tree for $2500 because his deductible is only $1000. True story.

 

[gyp69]

I have people all the time that want me to take down a single tree for them. "So and so said it's 3000bf and worth $3600."

I tell them to sell it to the first person that will write them a check. If they want me to take the tree down I will charge X amount.

Then they get some friend who needs firewood to cut it down for "free" for the wood. But he drops it on the power lines and the power company bills $12,000. The homeowners insurance pays and the homeowner has the gall to say to my face that he got a better deal than hiring me to cut down and clean up the tree for $2500 because his deductible is only $1000. True story.

Haha, people are crazy but that’s how some think. Hope he not passing those better deal genes to kids.

 

[madhatte]

I once found a grove of maples down in a river floodplain/swamp/wetland, inaccessible by foot or vehicle, where every burl on every tree had been poached. The only thing I can figure is they must have boated there during a flood and just dropped the burls right into the boat while the river raged.

 

[newforest]

Where I live in northern Michigan the Feds finally busted a guy who was stealing their timber using a short bus with a winch inside. Hhe finally tried it somewhere too close to a private residence, who simply called some cops when they heard a chainsaw running after midnight.
I can remember finding large single Cherry stumps on public land - 15? years ago. I don’t think much has quite been worth stealing, lately, locally, though the short bus guy was suspected to have been at the ‘trade’ for a while.