Now for a "Closer Look" at an unusual story unfolding
in northern Wisconsin.
That's where thieves are illegally harvesting birch
trees, thousands of them, and selling them to wholesalers
and merchants for home decor.
Washburn County has been the hardest hit.
The sheriff's department reports trees have been cut in as many
as 20 locations on county land as well as on private property.
Washburn County Forest Administrator Mike Peterson
was able to join us earlier this week for more on this.
>> When you first came upon a stand of chopped-off birch,
almost a clear cut by some of the photos you sent, what did
you make of it?
>> We knew pretty much immediately what it was from.
We had been hearing from surrounding counties about
issues with birch theft on county lands and other public
lands.
We knew immediately when we found it that we were dealing
with the theft of smaller diameter birch products.
>> Had you ever seen anything like this in your county?
>> We've similar things with other species.
But this by far was probably the largest issue with widespread
theft that I've seen here in 20 years.
>> What was it like when you saw that?
Some of those photos are kind of stunning, to just see this cut
off like that.
>> It was very bothersome to me, especially since white birch is
a fairly short-lived species.
You get to be about 75, 80 years old it starts to die out and
decay.
When we harvest white birch, we make a very concerted effort to
get white birch started, regenerated, regrown before we
harvest.
We've got hundreds and hundreds of hours in and a lot of money
invested into disturbing the soil underneath these stands so
we can get white birch to regrow.
And then to come back and look at some of these sites and see
that they've stolen all the one-inch, two-inch, three-inch
diameter material off of this, it's bothersome because in a lot
of ways they're stealing the future off these young forests.
>> When did this start happening?
>> We've been seeing it -- I think it really exploded through
late last summer, early last fall and over this past winter
it's been -- it's exploded tremendously from what we've
seen say in the prior year.
>> Because I understand that this wood, these sticks, the
logs are super valuable.
Can you describe that?
How valuable are they?
>> Well, I don't have exact numbers on the pricing, but, you
know, you can go on to any of the websites, like any eBay type
website, and you can see a lot of the stuff advertised for
sale, $40 or $50 or more for a single stick or birch.
Looks a lot of it is being used for that up north cabin
decoration-type material.
And it's all kinds of products.
It's everything from a larger diameter stick like a fake
fireplace log all the way up to the small branches and twigs
that they're using.
>> Any idea why the sudden market for it?
>> I think there's always been a market for it.
Some of the rumors that I've heard that a lot of this
material was being provided out of China.
And I don't know if they were growing it there themselves or
were importing it.
But there's rumors that there was some quarantine issues, they
could no longer bring that material in and out of Asia,
which seems to have forced that demand more domestic and locally
here.
We've seen a lot of wholesalers pop up that are buying this from
collectors and reselling it to other larger markets.
>> So these wholesalers pop up in the region.
Are those legal operations?
>> From my understanding they're legal operations.
I question whether they have an obligation to assure that their
procurement is sourced through legal methods.
>> And how would one make sure of that?
>> Well, that's something we're looking into, to see if there's
some way that they can have to comply with some legal
requirement to prove that their wood is sourced legally.
>> And where else is this happening?
I mean, it's happening in other states as well; is that right?
>> As far as I know, it's happening across most of the
northern tier of counties in Wisconsin.
I know Douglas County, Bayfield County has had issues, Ashland,
Iron.
Just about most of the counties in the north.
There seems to be a big market for purchase in northeastern
Wisconsin and also in the upper peninsula of Michigan.
>> So are people that are being caught doing this,
are they local?
>> The people doing this, the ones we've encountered
are pretty much local, say neighboring counties.
We have had a few people that have come down out of Sawyer
County that have been caught harvesting material.
It doesn't appear to be people coming from a long range,
out of the area.
Our local sheriff's department had explained it as the new
scrap metal salvage.
Years ago when scrap prices were high you saw a lot of theft of
copper wire and aluminum off of highways.
Law enforcement is looking at it as a new way to make a quick
buck.
>> Speaking of law enforcement, do those officials and foresters
like yourself have enough manpower to stop this?
>> We don't directly.
Our department, our foresters, none of us have law enforcement
credentials.
We have to rely on the wardens and the sheriff's department to
do that enforcement.
At least here in Washburn County they've done a very good job.
They've really stepped up and taken the enforcement very
seriously and gotten really creative on how they
do the law enforcement.
>> You were talking about how the care that's taken on the
part of foresters to grow these kind of birch trees
in these stands.
How about the regeneration of them?
Is that going to prove difficult now?
>> I think the regeneration will prove difficult because, you
know, we've utilized the seed source from the mature trees to
regrow these stands.
And if we have areas where they've completely taken all the
young birch, we may not have the ability to manage that site for
birch in the future because we are unsure whether we'll have an
appropriate seed source to get it to regrow.
>> How mad does this make you?
>> It makes me quite furious, actually.
You know, and it's really ironic because we have so many people
out there collecting this material on county lands.
We have no legal permit that allows anyone to come in and cut
those kind of products.
So it's very frustrating.
It's very difficult to catch these folks.
A lot of it's done on the weekends.
I think a lot of it is done at night.
I think a lot of people collecting know that they're not
doing it legally and are taking great pains to not get caught.
>> What should people see if they see someone cutting down
birch that doesn't look like a legal harvest?
>> We've encouraged everyone here to contact the sheriff's
department, contact the wardens, you know, public relations even.
Interviews like this have been very effective to get the
message out.
I think that's the best law enforcement we've had.
It was kind of comical.
We had a site that we found last fall and I think I've had six
different people turn that site in as a potential theft site.
That's a good problem to have.
>> People care.
Mike Peterson, thanks very much.
>> All right.
Thank you.
>> And now a final Wisconsin agriculture news story for
tonight.
A new bipartisan bill in the state legislature would require
two state agencies, the Department of Agriculture and
Veterans Affairs, to assist state veterans interested in
going into farming.
The program would also support vets already working in
agriculture and place a special logo on foods grown by veterans.
Next week, a report on the proposed right to carry
legislation.
I'm Frederica Freyberg.
Have a great weekend.