GRANITE FALLS, WA (AP) – Charging documents say timber poachers were caught cutting 18 trees on Washington forest land off the Mountain Loop Highway near Granite Falls.

One Everett man is accused of trying to steal $12,000 worth of live Douglas fir and Western hemlock earlier this year.

A forester inspected the site and found 15 Douglas firs had been cut. One of the biggest had an estimated monetary value of more than $2,400.

Three smaller hemlocks had also been cut and were worth was about $1,000 each.

The firewood from those trees was donated to local food banks, and the poacher’s saws were impounded as evidence.

The same Everett man has a more recent record of robbery, malicious mischief and misdemeanors related to domestic violence.

Prosecutors charged him last Tuesday with first-degree theft.

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