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He stole prized lumber from a national forest. The trees' DNA proved it, feds say.
Morning Mix
He stole prized lumber from a national forest. The trees’ DNA proved it, feds say.
By Jaclyn Peiser
Today at 5:20 a.m. EDT
The blazing fire that tore through Washington state’s Olympic National Forest in 2018 scorched 3,300 acres of land and destroyed dozens of valuable bigleaf maple trees. Amid the wreckage were oversized stumps with sawed off limbs — a signal that the flames could have been a devastating casualty of a poorly planned tree heist. .,.. Two men were responsible, federal investigators said, and the proof was in the trees’ genetic makeup.
In a first for a federal criminal trial, prosecutors used tree DNA to prove the remains matched that of the timber the men sold to local mills. ... The tree genetics convinced jury members in Tacoma, Wash., and on Thursday they convicted Justin Andrew Wilke for his role in the theft and trafficking of illegally reaped timber.
{snip}
The men’s quest for the valuable maples also led to devastating destruction. ... On Aug. 2, 2018, Wilke, Williams and two other men who are not named in the criminal complaint set up camp near the eastern edge of the forest and embarked on a quest to find a bigleaf maple ripe for sale, the affidavit said. ... As the men prepared to chop down a tree, they noticed a bee nest near its base. After a failed attempt at removing the bees with wasp killer, the group “agreed that Wilke would kill the bees by burning the nest.”
Prosecutors alleged in court documents that Wilke doused the area in gasoline and lit it on fire. But the group was unable to extinguish the flames. (The jury did not convict Wilke for two federal charges related to the forest fire.) ... “The fire grew to become a forest fire that burned and otherwise damaged approximately 3,300 acres of public land in and around Olympic National Forest,” the affidavit said. ... The incident, known as the Maple Fire, cost about $4.2 million to contain, the release said. ... Wilke is due back in court for sentencing Oct. 18.
{snip}
By Jaclyn Peiser
Jaclyn Peiser is a reporter on the Morning Mix team. She previously covered the media industry for the New York Times. Twitter https://twitter.com/jackiepeiser
He stole prized lumber from a national forest. The trees’ DNA proved it, feds say.
By Jaclyn Peiser
Today at 5:20 a.m. EDT
The blazing fire that tore through Washington state’s Olympic National Forest in 2018 scorched 3,300 acres of land and destroyed dozens of valuable bigleaf maple trees. Amid the wreckage were oversized stumps with sawed off limbs — a signal that the flames could have been a devastating casualty of a poorly planned tree heist. .,.. Two men were responsible, federal investigators said, and the proof was in the trees’ genetic makeup.
In a first for a federal criminal trial, prosecutors used tree DNA to prove the remains matched that of the timber the men sold to local mills. ... The tree genetics convinced jury members in Tacoma, Wash., and on Thursday they convicted Justin Andrew Wilke for his role in the theft and trafficking of illegally reaped timber.
{snip}
The men’s quest for the valuable maples also led to devastating destruction. ... On Aug. 2, 2018, Wilke, Williams and two other men who are not named in the criminal complaint set up camp near the eastern edge of the forest and embarked on a quest to find a bigleaf maple ripe for sale, the affidavit said. ... As the men prepared to chop down a tree, they noticed a bee nest near its base. After a failed attempt at removing the bees with wasp killer, the group “agreed that Wilke would kill the bees by burning the nest.”
Prosecutors alleged in court documents that Wilke doused the area in gasoline and lit it on fire. But the group was unable to extinguish the flames. (The jury did not convict Wilke for two federal charges related to the forest fire.) ... “The fire grew to become a forest fire that burned and otherwise damaged approximately 3,300 acres of public land in and around Olympic National Forest,” the affidavit said. ... The incident, known as the Maple Fire, cost about $4.2 million to contain, the release said. ... Wilke is due back in court for sentencing Oct. 18.
{snip}
By Jaclyn Peiser
Jaclyn Peiser is a reporter on the Morning Mix team. She previously covered the media industry for the New York Times. Twitter https://twitter.com/jackiepeiser
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