The novel tree genetics convinced jury members in Tacoma, Wash., following a six-day trial.
Excerpt from this story from the Washington Post:
The trees are fighting back.
They’re under threat from the effects of climate change and raging forest fires — and this week they have ensured the person behind an illegal logging operation will be imprisoned for 20 months.
A case in Washington State represents the first use of DNA evidence from trees during a prosecution in a federal criminal trial.
Justin Andrew Wilke, 39, and a crew of associates were found to have conducted an illegal logging operation in the Elk Lake area of the Olympic National Forest, between April and August 2018. The group removed highly prized maple trees — used to produce musical instruments such as violins and guitars — and forged permits to sell the wood, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Washington. Wilke was sentenced on Monday.
At the trial, a research geneticist for the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Forest Service testified that the wood Wilke sold was a genetic match to the remains of three poached maple trees that investigators had discovered in the Elk Lake area.
The DNA analysis was so precise that it found the probability of the match being coincidental was approximately 1 in 1 undecillion (1 followed by 36 zeros), the statement added.
Based on this evidence, the jury concluded that the wood Wilke had sold to local mills, had been stolen. The DNA evidence also proved that Wilke had unlawfully harvested and sold wood from seven other maple trees, but the precise locations of those trees have yet to be determined.
The novel tree genetics convinced jury members in Tacoma, Wash., following a six-day trial, to convict Wilke for conspiracy, theft of public property, trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber, among other offenses.
The Olympic National Forest is known for its towering, lush and wide-trunked trees. The bigleaf maple is among the more prized inhabitant — its patterned wood often coveted for woodworking and manufacturing musical instruments. But it is illegal to chop down trees in national forests without a permit.
Wilke was also ordered to forfeit the proceeds of his illegal poaching and is required to pay restitution to the U.S. Forest Service.
