Tree DNA Helps Secure Conviction of Timber Thief

In a first for a federal criminal trial, prosecutors used tree DNA evidence to help convict the lead defendant for stealing timber from U.S. Forest Service lands in Washington state.

According to records filed in the case, Justin Andrew Wilke led an illegal logging operation in the Olympic National Forest for highly prized maple wood, removing and transporting the wood to a mill for processing. Wilke and his conspirators also lied to the mill about the origins of the wood, saying it came from private land.

On August 3, 2018 the group attempted to cut a maple tree with a wasp’s nest. The group attempted to burn the nest by lighting it ablaze with gasoline and insecticides, which developed into a wildfire called the “Maple Fire.” The Maple Fire burned from August to November 2018, consuming over 3,300 acres and costing $4.2 million to contain. U.S. Forest Service law enforcement and firefighting personnel preserved important evidence in the case. Witnesses who testified were not able to confirm Wilke’s exact actions, and Wilke was not convicted of two counts relating to the fire. Wilke’s coconspirator Shawn Williams pleaded guilty in 2019 to setting the fire and stealing trees.

Prosecutors used the testimony of a U.S. Forest Service research geneticist to prove a genetic match between DNA from the wood sold to the mill and DNA from the remains of poached timber in the National Forest. The DNA analysis was so precise that it found the probability of the match being coincidental was approximately one in one undecillion (one followed by 36 zeroes).  Based on this evidence, the jury concluded the wood Wilke sold the mill had been stolen.   

Following a 6-day jury trial, Wilke was convicted of conspiracy, theft of public property, depredation of public property, trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber, and attempting to traffic in unlawfully harvested timber.  U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle scheduled sentencing for October 18, 2021.

“When people steal trees from our public lands, they are stealing a beautiful and irreplaceable resource from all of us and from future generations,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman.  “That theft, coupled with the sheer destruction of the forest fire that resulted from this activity, warrants federal criminal prosecution.  I commend the various branches of the U.S. Forest Service who worked diligently to investigate and hold this defendant accountable.”