Posted on 07/03/2004 6:58:59 PM PDT by nuconvert
Purdue Lab Uses DNA Testing to Finger Company That Stole Valuable Tree
Rick Callahan/Associated Press
Jul 3, 2004
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Maybe the crime-solvers at a Purdue University tree lab could inspire a new TV series: "Law & Order: Special Botany Unit." The scientists used DNA testing to match the stump of a stolen black walnut tree with two logs sold to a lumber mill 60 miles away.
"This DNA technology put the log back on the stump," said Keith Woeste, a molecular geneticist at Purdue's Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center.
The case began in November when an incensed landowner in western Indiana's Warren County contacted the state Department of Natural Resources after finding the stumps and chainsawed branches of a black walnut tree and a black cherry tree on his property. The wood from the 55-foot-tall black walnut was worth at least $2,500.
Conservation officer Don Dyson said a timber-cutting crew had been working in the area when the trees were cut, and a timber mill the harvester routinely sells to had two large black walnut logs that appeared to match the missing tree.
Although the end of the stump and the logs appeared to match, "we weren't 100 percent sure," Dyson said.
DNR employees met with scientists from the Purdue center after a state forester mentioned they regularly perform DNA tests on trees as part of their research.
Woeste assigned four students to perform a genetic analysis technique called DNA fingerprinting to compare the confiscated logs' DNA to that of the stump and branches.
Woeste said the students' analysis matched the various pieces of wood to such a high degree of accuracy that, like DNA evidence in a rape case, it would have been admissible in court.
A tree-poaching conviction could have cost the timber-cutter his state license, but he paid the landowner $9,000 - about three times the value of the trees - to avoid going to court.
"Once he found out all the evidence that we had he was more than willing to settle with the landowner," Dyson said. "That license is his livelihood."
"tree-poaching". hmmm.......
a walnut wobber ?
"Law & Order : Special Botany Unit", PonG
"Once he found out all the evidence that we had he was more than willing to settle with the landowner," Dyson said. "That license is his livelihood."
He should have thought about that.
Strip him of it, he's probably done this before.
Though I woulda sued for more than $9000
A 55 foot black walnut in Indiana is worth it's weight in cool relaxing shade.
Always holdin' the black walnut down.
Finally! A show that could get lower Nielsen ratings than Donahue.
Lol
Could have cost him a lot more than $9000.
If you were the owner with $9,000 in your hand, would you really care if they were replaced? Mind you, they are special trees but apparently these were not your high visibility landscape trees, or they wouldn't have been cut down.
timber theft is a huge problem in rural areas, especially when there are absentee landowners. Difficult to prove without eyewitnesses.
lmao!
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