The Pervasive Problem–and Far-Reaching Impact–Of Tree Poaching | Hacker News Reader

The Pervasive Problem–and Far-Reaching Impact–Of Tree Poaching

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46 pointsmemorable17 comments

This happened to my mother-in-law. She was and remains extremely poor. Her mother died and left her the family home, the most valuable piece of which was a large black walnut tree. Her brother cut down the tree and sold it without permission or compensation.

I've seen this in Maine as well: land under nature conservancy where someone has gone in and clear cut all but a scrim of wood next to the road where the alders and brush grow thicker. This particular wood was later bought out of conservancy and completely cleared to make a mansion surrounded by surveillance cameras, so I guess it wasn't that much of a loss in the end. It had been the only land left on the point, after forest fires and logging, with any trees over a hundred years old.

They used to do this with sandalwood in India until the government crushed the poaching. There is very little now. Of course the “crushing” was very unethically which basically involved executing poachers on sight.

you mean giving them a taste of their own medicine?

In many cases poachers, of trees or other things, are poor people for whom poaching provides a means to survive. I think it's almost always better to blame and try to improve economic factors than blaming individuals. We need to come up with other ways for these people to feed their families.

>We need to come up other ways

Or they do.

There are plenty of other ways.

Relevant Indian movie - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushpa:_The_Rise

Here in Virginia we call it tree jacking.

Strange business model indeed.

Regulation has made tree poaching very lucrative.

Gibson Guitars had their factory raided over wood. https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2011/08/31/140090116/...

You all would probably be interested in this article too

https://www.hcn.org/issues/49.5/busting-the-tree-ring

My parents dealt with this - people came in when they were on vacation and clear cut about 3 acres of land in a remote part of their property. Probably for firewood.

> when they were on vacation

locals then, people who know your parents

Definitely locals. The problem with small towns is everyone knows everyone’s business.

I know of a few cases where valuable trees were specifically targeted by thieves. Black Walnuts in particular can be worth well into the six figures.

A relative of mine had several very old hardwood trees (Cherry and others) removed from their forest in Pennsylvania.

six figures? Black walnut is $10-$20 per bf at my local lumber yard. Taking the lowest six figure amount and the highest lumber yard price, that would require a black walnut tree that is 100 times larger than the typical northwest fir.

Perhaps the difference between the lumber cost and the replacement cost? Replacing an old, large tree can easily get into the six figure ranges because in most jurisdictions, you'd have to replace like for like. So to replace a 100 year old black walnut, you'd need to find another 100 year old black walnut, transport it, transplant it, hope it survives (so you don't need to repeat the process.)

Unfortunately, there is also such a thing as stealing entire trees.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_spade

This reminds me of a recent documentary about a billionaire transporting trees, often purchased from families in financial distress, to his private fantasy garden: Taming The Garden https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taming_the_Garden

"God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages" --Jacques Deval (b. 1895)

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