Seattle – Two former Hood Canal area residents are under arrest on an indictment charging eight federal felonies related to their scheme to steal the wood of big leaf maple trees from Olympic National Forest.
The indictment alleges that between April and August 2018, JUSTIN WILKE and SHAWN WILLIAMS felled and sold publicly-owned maple trees.
The indictment also alleges that the defendants started a forest fire when they set fire to a bee’s nest in a tree they were trying to unlawfully harvest from National Forest land. The resulting fire – known as “The Maple Fire” – burned more than 3,300 acres between August and November 2018 and cost approximately $4.5 million to contain.
According to the indictment, the defendants traveled into areas of the Olympic National Forest to scout for big leaf maple trees that might contain ‘figured’ wood – wood that is highly prized for musical instruments. The men looked for maple trees they could steal in areas around Elk Lake and Lena Lake. The men then cut the maple trees, took blocks of wood from the trees to a property near Lilliwaup along the Hood Canal, and sold the blocks to a lumber mill in Tumwater after providing phony permits to the owner.
Conspiracy, setting timber afire, and trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber are each punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Theft of public property and depredation of government property are punishable by up to ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Using fire in furtherance of a felony is punishable by a mandatory ten-year sentence of imprisonment.