THIEVES COME OUT OF WOODWORK
BY CRAIG CROSBY
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 09/14/2008

BY CRAIG CROSBY

Staff Writer

Bruce Reed has investigated his share of stolen firewood complaints during his 30 years with the Maine Forest Service, but the number of cases flowing into Reed's Greenville office this year is unlike anything he has ever seen.

"We've had problems in the past, but it wasn't as prolific as it is now," said Reed, ranger for the Moosehead District. "Every ranger we have has cases they're working on dealing with the theft of firewood."

Most of the complaints are in the central region, which runs roughly from Hampden to Lincoln and Isle au Haut to the Moosehead Lake area, said Kent Nelson of the Maine Forest Service's Forest Protection Division.

The thefts typically occur at landings, the yards in the woods where felled trees are hauled to await shipping. Thieves move in when those yards are left unprotected. They then cut the tree-length timbers into firewood and haul it away, Nelson said.

The number of reported thefts in the central region has nearly doubled to seven so far in 2008 from four in 2007. There were just two reports in 2006.

But those numbers, which record the number of reported thefts from lumber yards in the central region, in no way reflect what is actually going on, Nelson said.

Complaints of stolen firewood can fall in any number of statistical categories, depending on the manner and location from which the wood is stolen, and the Forest Service has not crunched all the numbers.

Moreover, Nelson knows from talking to landowners and rangers that many thefts are simply going unreported.

If the numbers do not paint a startling picture, the anecdotal evidence certainly does, Nelson said.

"Talking to rangers in the field they are saying they're very busy with firewood thefts this year," he said.

Don White, president of Bangor-based Prentiss & Carlisle, which manages 1.5 million acres of timberland throughout the U.S. and Canada and generates about 400,000 cords each year, said there was another report this week of someone illegally cutting into one of the wood piles the company had set aside for biomass -- piles of scrap wood the company chips to be sold for pellet production of wood-to-energy facilities.

"We know it's an issue," White said. "We used to see it maybe once a year. (We're) seeing it a couple times a month now."

Most of the thefts take place near population centers where there is easier access, White said. The company has worked with the Forest Service on a couple of cases but the thieves, often remain unknown.

"We just don't report them," White said. "The Forest Service is great, but there's only so much they can do."

But forest rangers do have methods for tracking down thieves, Reed said. Rangers have stepped up patrols in certain areas and thefts often are witnessed by passersby. Tips from those witnesses to the area Forest Ranger with the time, location and any description of the person or vehicle, particularly a license plate number, can lead to a successful prosecution.

"Those are key pieces of information," Reed said. "A lot of times we'll track that back to the individual. We're not 100 percent successful, but we have a reasonable amount of success doing it that way."

While most of the stolen wood is taken from yards, there are those who will cut down live trees from landowners' property without a permit, Reed said. In other cases the thief will get a permit and, perhaps accidentally even, cut outside the area specified in the permit.

"They may get a permit for one cord and they'll go out and take five cord of wood," Reed said.

If the thefts continue, Nelson worries landowners may discontinue the practice of issuing permits.

"They need to be careful they are cutting the proper wood," he said.

Those who do violate permits risk having that permit voided or revoked.

In other cases the penalties can be even steeper. Cutting just a few sections of firewood from one timber, if it is high quality, can cost the landowner hundreds of dollars. Once the value goes over $1,000 it can become a felony, Reed said.

"A felony brings with it a lot of consequences," he said. "We don't want to charge people in that manner, but if they steel 8 to 10 saw logs and cut them up, it could be well over $1,000."

Nelson and Reed hope the frequency of the thefts can be slowed by educating people of the importance of following the rules spelled out in landowners' permits, and by encouraging the public at large to keep their eyes open.

"It's a difficult time with these high fuel prices," Nelson said. "It's a shame some of these timber thieves are ruining it for the honest people."

Craig Crosby -- 623-3811, Ext. 433

ccrosby@centralmaine.com

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