Seeing the Forest For the Trees

by Fran Withrow 10.2022

Lyndsie Bourgon’s book, “Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America’s Woods,” is a real eye-opener. Bourgon traveled along the west coast of North and Central America to focus on the problem of timber poaching. She shares the personal stories of people on both sides of the issue as she highlights the problems surrounding this topic few of us know about.

The subject is complex. On one hand, loggers kept communities alive for generations, with jobs handed down from father to son. On the other hand, as trees were cut down en masse, the logging industry began to dry up. People started to realize the ramifications of deforestation and rallied to protest. Many loggers, now jobless, turned to poaching timber.

Protecting the forest is difficult. Park rangers struggle to stop the poaching in woods that are almost too vast to monitor. Also, it can be dangerous to confront a poacher, and some officials have lost their lives defending the trees. Cameras installed in various areas only rarely identify a poacher. Trust is low between rangers and former loggers.

There’s more. Some trees (and parts of trees) are so valuable poachers are willing to take the risk of being caught. For instance, while redwood tree timber is in high demand, their burls are even more greatly prized. Burls are large protuberances a redwood tree creates after being damaged. The burls are so perfect they don’t need to be stained, just polished. Poachers will carefully cut out the burls, often doing irreparable damage to the redwood, and attempt to cover their theft with forest detritus. It is often just by chance that the vandalism is discovered.

Timber poaching is rampant worldwide. An astounding 30 percent of the wood trade is illegal. (In Cambodia, for instance, it is an appalling 90 percent.) Scientists are now building a database of tree DNA so wood samples can be matched to find out where a piece of wood originated. This can help identify whether wood has been illegally felled or not. If this effort is successful, it will be another tool in protecting the California redwoods and other trees around the world.

The plight of former loggers needs to be addressed as well. Research shows that separating forests from people in an effort to protect the trees doesn’t work. This realization has led to another innovation: the creation of community forests, which are now spreading across British Columbia. These forests are leased to nearby communities, many of which are managed by indigenous people. The communities are responsible for maintaining their forests by careful logging, firefighting, and even doing scientific studies. This is creating many new jobs, but also fosters people’s connection with the forests and heightens their desire to protect them.

“We trust in the trees,” says Jose Jumanga, president of Communidad El Naranjal in Peru.  “This is the essence of the forest, and it takes care of us.” 

Bourgon’s thought-provoking book shows just how challenging it is for us to take care of the forest as well.