Purdue University scientists used DNA analysis to determine that two logs sold to a lumber mill came from a tree stump more than 60 miles away, and in doing so, cracked the case of a stolen black walnut tree, according to the Associated Press.
It is believed the be the first time genetic tests have been used to successfully solve a tree-poaching case, Keith Woeste, a molecular geneticist at Purdue's Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center, told the AP.
"This DNA technology put the log back on the stump," Woeste said.
The two stolen trees went under investigation back in November after a landowner in western Indiana found "stumps and chainsawed branches of a black walnut tree and a black cherry tree on his property."
The black walnut tree is valuable, and can net upwards of $2,500. The investigation led to a lumber mill 60 miles northeast of the stump, where Indiana Department of Natural Resources staff discovered two black walnut logs similar to the poached tree.
Student geneticists with the Center performed a technique called DNA fingerprinting and compared the logs DNA to the stump and branches. They matched.
The investigators earlier had discovered that a licensed timber crew was responsible for felling the trees. Once the licensed timber cutter saw the DNA evidence, he quickly sought to settle out of court to avoid conviction and loss of his license.
"That license is his livelihood," Conservation officer Don Dyson told the AP.
What did he settle for? The landowner received $9,000, per a state law that allows property owners to be awarded three times the value of a tree accidentally or purposely cut down by someone else.
Recently in Wisconsin, landowners butted heads with loggers in the Brodhead area after they chopped down about 20 walnut trees on their property without permission, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
The loggers offered one landowner $1,000 per tree they cut down if he did not tell the police.
"It's happening more and more," area-Sheriff Robert Spoden told the WSJ. "They're coming in and cutting down trees on the boundaries of property. The owners, by the time they realize it, are out of luck."
