Published: January 19, 2008 02:13 am         

Property owners robbed of their trees

Prosecuting timber thefts

Laurel County resident Ray Fields and his 12 siblings own 60 acres of property in Letcher County. They inherited the land after their mother died in 2001. Like much of Letcher County, the property is on opposite sides of a mountain, with 40 acres on one face and 20 acres on another.

In 2002, thieves took advantage of the fact that no one lives on the property and used the mountain as cover, cutting and taking more than 60,000 board feet of trees, including maple, oak, walnut and poplar, off of the 20 acres.

The family found the damage about a week after the trees had been cut. After nine trial dates in Letcher Circuit Court, a special prosecutor reached a plea bargain with Josh Baker, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor (under $300) theft charge.

“We received absolutely no help from the special prosecutor,” Fields said. “When the judge asked if the plea bargain was reached with the victim’s consent, I told him, ‘No.’ The sentence calls for Baker to pay us $9,000 at $400 per month and put him on two years of unsupervised probation. I told my sister, ‘This is happening because we don’t live in Letcher County and don’t vote in Letcher County.’”

Fields said he and his siblings are trying to take action against the special prosecutor, but only time will bring back the decades-old trees that were taken.

“Our mother bought that property in 1943 or 1944,” Fields said. “I was about 6 years old the last time the trees were cut on that property, which would have been about 1959.”

The family has taken precautions to ensure the incident does not happen again. “We had the property surveyed and the property lines marked,” Fields said.

Unlike copper or even wheat theft, the theft does not seem to be due to timber prices having increased dramatically.

“Timber prices have actually fallen, mainly because of the softening of the economy,” said Eddie Jones of Chaney Lumber. “But it is still quite valuable.”

Jones said the price of lumber varies greatly depending on the species, but estimated the high-end wood, such as walnut or cherry, goes for $2 per board foot.

“Then it decreases from there,” he said.

Local law enforcement is warning property owners to be watchful — they may find stumps where mature trees formerly stood.

Laurel County Sheriff’s Lead Investigator Charlie Loomis said he is not aware of any local instances, but either by accident or on purpose, trees have been cut down and hauled off for the lumber without the property owner’s permission.

“This is something that happens all the time,” Loomis said. ‘Sometimes someone makes a mistake and cuts trees on the wrong side of the property line because the line is not clearly marked. Sometimes, thieves come onto the property and cut down and take the trees.”

Loomis said the incidents he has heard of occurred on larger pieces of land and in more isolated places.

Like other thieves, Loomis said those who are stealing trees face felony theft charges.

Davies County Sheriff Keith Cain told the Associated Press prosecutors have been reluctant to take cases of timber theft to court because of questions about the property boundaries and the cost to hire a survey team and an expert witness to testify on the value of the timber.

Loomis said that is one of the reasons owners should be aware of their property lines and check the property lines on a regular basis, especially in rural and isolated areas.

And it is not just private property owners that are affected. Kimberly Morgan, spokesperson for the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky, said there are about 30 incidents a year of individuals cutting and taking trees from the national forest.

Morgan advised that anyone caught cutting and stealing trees in the national forest will be prosecuted on theft charges in federal court.

“This is a regular problem we have to deal with,” Morgan said. “But, I have not heard that it is an increasing trend.”

Appalachian Roundtable, a nonprofit organization of forestry experts, attorneys, law enforcement and victims, is working to get new legislation passed by the General Assembly to combat these thefts by making it a felony punishable with prison time. The organization is also trying to make property owners aware of existing laws.

Under current law, when a master logger comes onto a parcel of land to cut trees, the logger is required to notify neighboring property owners of the intention to log the property. The logger must also have a map of the property in his possession and must have the property boundaries marked.

Dea Riley of the Appalachian Roundtable said there is currently no state law that targets tree theft, but criminals may still be prosecuted under existing theft statutes.

“It’s a racketeering game,” Riley told the Associated Press. “These people are victims.”