Timber prices are now so high that renegade loggers
in northern Idaho have been stealing trees from national forests.
Recently, 15 people were arrested for 35 timber thefts that
occurred last year on the Priest Lake District of the Idaho
Panhandle National Forest. Don Hacker, 42, of Priest River, Idaho,
was fined $600 and ordered to pay $700 in restitution after twice
being convicted of timber theft. Incidents of theft have increased
since timber such as lodgepole pine, which the industry once
considered almost worthless, increased in value from $25 per 1,000
board-feet to more than $400, reports the Spokane Spokesman-Review
in Washington.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Tree poaching on the rise.
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