Quilcene, WA man convicted for cutting maple trees in national forest
April 17th, 2010 - 12:55 am ICT by BNO NewsTACOMA, WASHINGTON (BNO NEWS) – A Washington man was convicted in connection with cutting maple trees on a national forest, prosecutors said Friday.
John Mark Randall, 50, of Quilcene, Washington, illegally harvested maple trees in the Olympic National Forest, trained three young men to help him, and sold the wood to a sawmill for use in musical instruments, claiming to have harvested the trees in his private property.
Randall trained some young associates in how to recognize and harvest high value maple wood for use in musical instruments, and in 2008 the U.S. Forest Service learned that these men, Travis M. Reeves, Justin J. Reeves (the Reeves brothers) and Andrew J. Post, had illegally harvested two maple trees in the Hood Canal Ranger District of the Olympic National Forest in an area known as Penny Creek.
Further investigations revealed that Randall fraudulently allowed the three young men to use his Washington State Specialized Forest Products Harvesting Permit to sell some of the illegally harvested maple to a local sawmill. Randall knowingly served as a middle man for selling illegally-harvested maple. Randall went to the site where one of the trees had been cut down and marked it with chalk to show his associates how it should be cut for the greatest value.
When a sawmill worker discovered that the wood had been harvested on National Forest and not on private land as stated in the permit, he alerted law enforcement. Randall attempted to hide his involvement by having all the maple blocks the group had harvested removed from his property, as the wood was burned at another location.
“I am obviously very pleased with the jury’s guilty verdict. This is a message to others who believe they can steal the public’s resources and get away with it,” U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Lyons said. “Theft of high dollar value timber continues to be a problem on the Olympic National Forest. We welcome any tips the public can provide to solve these crimes.”
Randall was convicted and is scheduled for sentencing on July 9, 2010. He faces up to five years in prison for conspiracy, and up to 10 years in prison for the counts of damaging government property and theft of government property. In addition, all counts of conviction carry a $250,000 fine.
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