Thieves will offer absurdly low prices for timber knowing that the landowner has no idea of the value. Although it is not a crime to give away your trees, it is a crime to misrepresent their value
Ways to Prevent the Theft:
- Timber market values and tree volumes can be hard to determine without a professional. Always get a second opinion of values and volumes, especially where large acreage is involved. You might want to hire a forestry consultant or buy a timber inventory from a third party.
- Check out all timber buyers by asking for referrals and by inquiring about the buyer at your local or state foresters office.
- Avoid the temptation to make a "quick sell" to a friendly buyer. Take a deep breath and ask the buyer for some time for you to think about what you are going to do. You should not feel pressured by the buyer.
A Way Thieves Steal Trees - Number Three:
Thieves can actually steal trees after you have approved and allowed the harvest. Poor accounting in both "lump sum" sales and "unit" sales can tempt a logger or a trucker to misreport trees cut and/or volumes represented.
Ways to Prevent the Theft:
- No timber should leave the loading site on "pay-as-cut" sales unless the load has been recorded by date, species, time and destination.
- All records must be available for inspection and collected at the end of each week. These records should then be compared to scale tickets for reconciliation.
- You or your agent needs to be on-site and visible at random times during the week.
