stolen tree from Cleveland Metroparks

[ATH]

Duo charged in theft of $28,000 Black Walnut tree, one of state’s largest, from Metroparks in Strongsville

A brother and sister are accused of cutting down one of the state's largest Black Walnut trees, worth $28,000, from Cleveland Metroparks' Mill Stream Run Reservation in Strongsville.

www.cleveland.com

Couple of thoughts:

1) Glad to see timber theft being prosecuted.
1a) Wish they'd prosecute it more often. It is difficult to find prosecutors who will. The cynic in me notes they are prosecuting when it is taken from public property...would they do the same if it were on private property?

2) Kinda glad to see the thief (landowner who illegally sold the tree) got robbed too. They got paid $2000 for a log that sold for $10,000 (plus whatever the log that the sawmill kept was worth). But not glad that a timber pimp made out like a bandit...hope others catch on - but they won't. He'll go on paying next-to-nothing making people feel good about it.

3) Somebody needs to work on their appraisal skills...a log that sells at the mill for $10K isn't worth $28K. Unless I'm misreading it, this was in a woods, not a yard (certainly not a yard of the Park district...). Should be appraised as a woods tree (timber value), not a yard tree. Now, if they had developed resources around the tree as part of their park programs because of its size, that may be a different story. But it doesn't sound like they did.

4) Doesn't sound like the Park District marked the line. They surveyed it...but was it marked? Not that lack of marking absolves the neighbor's who cut the tree of responsibility to know that before selling timber...but if they want to protect their property, they ought to mark their lines.

5) "He [Jones] said he never received any money from the sale of the tree." It just go more weird.

6) With apologies, but don't blame me...blame this line, copied from the linked article "Black Walnut trees are highly sought after because of the high-quality lumber they produce.":

 

[evo]

I stumbled onto a genetic study on maple, while out in the field we were blocked by a forest fire, later we learned that the fire was started by timber poachers going for bigleaf maple. They pissed odd a bald face hornet nest, doused it in saw gas and caused a significant wildfire into the national forest. Then once more we learned that our specific data was used in the prosecution of the case!

 

[27RMT0N]

Property lines are a big deal, and when someone has a financial interest in a line being in their favor, they are clearly willing to overlook doing the actual survey (as the article states they didn't, yet signed a paper saying they did before selling it) or interpret the line in their head very optimistically....

There are a few classic stories of cutting other peoples trees, or specifically the cities in the Seattle area. In one, a group of neighbors in West Seattle got together to cut down 153 trees in a city greenbelt below their houses (increasing landslide risk...) for their view. Story here: https://westseattleblog.com/2018/02...ee-cutting-settled-for-360000-city-announces/

In another a JUDGE had someone cut 120+ trees in a city park for his view. Then tried to blame it on the gardener not speaking English well enough... https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Judge-pays-off-debt-for-cutting-park-trees-1204642.php

And the final classic tree destruction story: "On a night in January 2012, while Barnes and a friend smoked meth inside “The Senator,” the breeze was a bit much, so they started a fire. The fire grew and what was then the fifth-oldest tree in the world burned from the inside out like a bellowing chimney." https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime...oldest-cypress-tree-the-senator-back-in-jail/

Oh yah, and once my dad was called to jury duty for a case involving someone that stole a bunch of trees from a plant nursery I think, when they found out he was the head of a large garden, he was dismissed as a juror because of potential bias

 

[ATH]

all those cases sound like people KNEW they were taking someone else's trees. The link in the OP it sounds like they (or at least the claim) did not know it wasn't their tree. It is still their responsibility to figure that out before selling it...but slightly different situation.

 

[Tuebor]

Sounds like a case of dueling surveys: the park's vs the sister's. In a final case of irony, I'd like to see the defendant resort to selling the property to the park system for cheap just to pay for his defense attorney.

 

[GregManning]

I have a friend, who many years ago, bought a large forested lot in Maine on the Damariscotta River.
She wanted to build a part-time “retreat cabin” in the woods. (It ended up far nicer & $$$ than my house.)
She hired a tree service to clear & set the timber aside. The goal was to use the timber to build the cabin.

She came back the next year; all the timber was gone ! ! !
She was initially told that the wood had rotted ! ! ! (in ½ year ! ! !)
Mainer’s stick together; so, it took a real effort to investigate.

Finally, the owner of the tree service admitted that his brother, who did not work for the service, stole the timber !

 

[ATH]

Sounds like a case of dueling surveys: the park's vs the sister's. In a final case of irony, I'd like to see the defendant resort to selling the property to the park system for cheap just to pay for his defense attorney.

I'm not sure whatever it indicates the brother and sister ever had a survey... They just always thought it was their tree based on what Dad had told them for years so they ran with it without confirming.

If they did have a survey, my guess is there is no criminal case here. That would be a civil fight over whose survey was right.

 

[Tuebor]

Yep. From the article it sounds like hearsay:

"...Hoffman signed a contract that said she had conducted a survey of the property and was the rightful owner of the tree, according to police reports."

"A park surveyor determined the tree was “clearly on park district land,” police reports say."

I'm sure there's a variety of survey types of varying detail, but I would think even the most basic would include corner markers at boundary line changes. Seems like an easy case to resolve. Keep us updated if you hear more in the future.

 

[Barc Buster]

I see where it says the person who allegedly stole the tree maintained the property for a number of years I wonder if adverse possession will come into play. Not that I’m condoning the theft of timber, but the case seems far from cut and dried.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

...cut and dried.

Well done pun!

 

[Barc Buster]

Well done pun!

A punny man I is