Two charged with timber theft in 2018 forest fire

  Seattle – Two former Hood Canal area residents are charged with stealing to wood of big leaf maple trees from Olympic National Forest.

The indictment alleges that between April and August 2018, Justin Andrew Wilke and Shawn Edward Williams felled and sold publicly-owned maple trees, according to the US Attorneys Office for Western Washington.

The indictment alleges that, in August 2018, the two started a forest fire in an attempt to burn out a bees’ nest when they  were trying to unlawfully harvest from the 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, as early as April 2018, 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, Washington, and sold the blocks to a lumber mill in Tumwater, Washington. The conspirators presented the mill owner with permits claiming the maple had been harvested on private land, when in fact it had been illegally cut and stolen from the National Forest.

In early August 2018, after selling thousands of dollars’ worth of maple to the mill, the two identified a big leaf maple they wanted to steal. However, the large tree contained a bee’s nest, which made it difficult to fell. After unsuccessfully attempting to get rid of the bees with wasp killer, the men decided to kill the bees by burning the nest. Wilke poured gasoline on the nest and lit it on fire. The men tried to put the fire out with water bottles but were unsuccessful. The fire grew into a 3,300-acre forest fire, damaging public lands in Olympic National Forest and costing $4.5 million to extinguish.

Wilke is charged with eight federal felonies: Conspiracy; two counts of depredation of public property; theft of public property; trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber; attempted trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber; setting timber afire; and using fire in furtherance of a felony. Williams is charged with conspiracy, depredation of government property, and attempted trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber.

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

Photo: Weekend bonfire

(c) 2015 J.S. Reinitz

 What better way to mark the end of months of ice and snow than with a backyard campfire. Smores were the daughter’s idea.

Fire pit

First fire in our new fire pit. Started with a Coleman striker. (c) J.S. Reinitz 2014.

Today, we christened our new, partially completed fire pit.

With two of the three rows of bricks in place, we decided the circle was finished enough to ignite some backyard fun. This time, we sparked it with a Coleman striker (pictured sitting on the bricks in the photo above) using SOL Tinder-Quik and a whole lot of sort-of-dry leaves (it has been raining a lot lately). The Tinder-Quik took off easily from the sparks.

A few weeks ago, a passing storm deposited a huge tree limb in our yard, narrowly missing the garage and the swing set, so we have a good stock of firewood.

Firewood, courtesy of a recent storm. (c) J.S. Reinitz 2014

More rescue awards

Here’s a follow-up the the National Park Service valor awards we wrote about a few days ago. Also earning the award, the highest for park service employees, were two Zion rangers who rescued an upside-down climber in 2010, and Joshua Tree National Park staff who responded to a plane crash in 2011.

Here’s the National Park Service account:

Two Zion National Park Rangers Receive Valor Awards
  May 8, 2014

Springdale, UT- In recognition of their quick actions and willingness to place themselves in positions of danger in an effort to save the life of another, Zion National Park Rangers Craig Thexton and Therese Picard are receiving Department of Interior Valor Awards.

The incident that is being recognized took place on the evening of April 30, 2010, after Zion National Park dispatch received a report that a canyoneer was in distress on the final rappel of Pine Creek. The reporting party stated that a member of his party had lost control while rappelling, was hanging upside down, and was unable to right himself.

The Pine Creek canyoneering route travels through a deep, narrow canyon and requires five rappels. The final rappel is 90 feet long and free hanging. After completing the final rappel, canyoneers must walk and scramble ¾-mile to reach a road. The one-mile long Zion/Mount Carmel tunnel parallels the rappel route and one of the tunnel windows is 200 feet above the anchor for the final rappel.

Rangers immediately recognized the life threatening nature of the situation. Rangers Ray O’Neil, Craig Thexton, Therese Picard, and Dan Hovanec responded to the tunnel window. They rigged a lowering system and a belay line and lowered Thexton and Picard out of the tunnel window 200 feet down to the subject.

Primitive fire

Our first flint and steel fire. (c) J.S. Reinitz

 

If at first you don’t succeed, keep showering sparks.

After a few attempts, we started our first primitive fire this week. My 11-year-old son and I used an old time steel striker with a piece of flint to scrape sparks onto a bed of dry leaves and dryer lint inside a tower of twigs.

It didn’t take off right away. Only one in every three or four passes generated a single spark, which fell onto our tinder pile and immediately winked out.

When we tired of the flint, we moved on to a modern version, a Gerber Strike Force. It works on the same principle but produces a greater yield of sparks.

Still nothing took (I’m guessing the dryer lint has a high concentration of fire-resistant cat hair), so we added a small char cloth tinder patch that came with the striker when I bought it years ago. Finally, a spark caught the patch, which slowly smoldered. We nursed it with hay and leaves until the fire began to burn on its own, then we kept adding leaves until the twigs caught.

 

Flint and steel with tinder box and Strike Force fire starter. (c) J.S. Reinitz

Striking flint with a piece of high-carbon steel. (c) J.S. Reinitz

Tinder begins to catch. (c) J.S. Reinitz

Finally getting a good fire. (c) J.S. Reinitz

Our first flint and steel fire. (c) J.S. Reinitz