Tree DNA Used to Get Timber Thief Conviction

Tree DNA was used to help convict a man accused of timber theft in Tacoma, Wash., ABC News reported. It’s the first time tree DNA has been introduced in a federal trial, prosecutors said. 

On July 8, a jury convicted Justin Andrew Wilke of conspiracy, theft of public property, depredation of public property and trafficking and attempted trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber.

Wilke said the timber he’d harvested and sold to a mill was legal and taken from a private property. However, a geneticist for the U.S. Forest Service testified that the wood Wilke sold genetically matched the remains of three poached trees. 

Wilke now faces up to 10 years in prison.