Fresh Burl Cutting Reported in State Park Near Miranda After Redwood Poaching Earlier at Bull Creek
Burl sliced off in Stephen’s Grove near Miranda. [Photo by Jeffrey Brown]
Brown, who says he has walked the trail daily for years, told Redheaded Blackbelt that several trail signs and markers in the area have recently been removed, pulled from the ground, or unscrewed and taken.
Posts sticking out of the ground are missing their signs at the popular trail just north of Miranda. [Image from Jeffrey Brown]
A side view of the same tree with the burl cut. [Photo by Jeffrey Brown]
The apparent vandalism comes after residents learned about ongoing damage and theft involving old-growth redwoods within Humboldt Redwoods State Park.
Redwood log being chopped for shingles Bull Creek area off the Mattole Road. [Photo provided by a local]
State Parks said suspects in that case allegedly cut and removed portions of a massive old-growth redwood log, splitting the wood into “shake bolts” commonly used for shingles and other wood products. Rangers also reported off-road vehicle damage to the forest floor caused by suspects accessing protected areas.
At the time, State Parks released surveillance photographs showing two people and a Dodge Ram pickup truck allegedly involved in the thefts. The incident near Miranda is not necessarily connected to the Bull Creek Flat incident.
Image captured via remote surveillance shows two suspects poaching old-growth redwood parts from a downed tree in the Bull Creek area. The suspects’ vehicle is believed to be a Dodge Ram pickup truck (1994-2002), extended cab, two-tone paint, with a large dent on the rear passenger side fender. The truck may have “Ram” logo decorative covers on the rear taillights.
The resident who contacted RHBB about the Stephens Grove incident said they have become increasingly concerned over what they described as escalating damage in the park, including littering, cigarette butts, missing signs, and suspicious activity around parked vehicles.
“I feel like I’m a steward of that trail,” the resident said, explaining they frequently pick up trash and monitor conditions along the route.
RHBB has reached out to California State Parks Saturday requesting information about the reported burl cutting near Stephens Grove, including whether the incident may be connected to broader redwood poaching activity in the region.
Anyone with information regarding vandalism or theft of park resources is asked to contact the Humboldt Redwoods State Park crime tip line at (707) 946-1816.
Earlier: Cut It Out! Illegal Redwood Poaching Reported Near Bull Creek
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That’s a shame that is an awesome burl. I wonder how old it is , it looks ancient.
Desperate people have desperate ways. Maybe if there were some jobs available these things would be less likely to happen.
Dirtbags and thieves are, well, dirtbags and thieves, absolutely no excuse.
Could a person move to where jobs are available instead of cutting redwood trees in national parks?
So true
Or if one wasnt a tweeker and could get a job
That doesn’t look like the work of a desperate person, that looks like an asshole tourist wanting a souvenir. Someone cutting burls for money would’ve done a lot more damage to that tree.
The shake-bolt stealing pair looks more like locals who prefer alternative income as opposed to legitimate work. Those kinds of folks have always been around rural areas, especially rural areas with a history of less-than-legal sources of income.
Oh yes, chain saw packing tourists are getting to be a real problem.
I was told by a friend who shops frequently at Schmidbauer they usually have an opening or two. Various landscaping companies have spots open too, more so this time of year. The money these guys made likely would just be a week’s work at a minimum wage job between them. Hope it was worth it. Lots of mining work for a few flakes.
There is a lot of stupid in the comments section. This is top of the list Mr. Ernie
Getting a job or suggesting such is stupid? What planet did you say you came from again, and is everyone unemployed there?
Hey, let’s leave Mr Branscomb alone.
have some respect for a guy who knows a lot more about the historical trajectory of our area than most people currently here.
he wasn’t justifying poaching at all.
Could be, but it was shocking to read.
What’s stopping anyone from creating their own business?
Meth. That’s about it.
Maybe the park law enforcement need to start doing the job they are paid for. Day or night. They won’t catch those who are destroying park resources from behind a desk. When caught, be sure to publish the mug shots, names, address and place of employment of those involved. Put some teeth in the fines, and penalties for the damage done.
When I walk in the redwoods on the avenue the only trash I see I used toilet paper. And that isn’t anything new. Stealing burns was popular in the 70s and 80s. And what about the rhododendrons they all got dug up and planted in yards around town thus the rhododendron parade! the Smith River is the only redwoods with rhododendron.
They’re by South Fork, you just have to go further away from the creeks from where people dig them up (and redwood saplings they can’t be bothered to buy at any nursery or burl shop).
And uh no, your blame is a bit misplaced. Nobody is cutting rhodies for the parade. I know, friends of mine were participants this year and in the past and I helped cut them from their own yards. Rhodies they bought from nurseries or propagated themselves.
Not true. Hauled logs all over Humboldt. There are wild Rhodies on parcels owned by big timber.
One of the highlights of my life was to see those beautiful plants with bright pink flowers climbing thirty to forty feet into the canopy of old growth trees, searching for light.
Actually didn’t look natural the way their color glowed in contrast to the green and brown of the dark forest
And how many pine cone cops will it take to patrol 72,000 acres of state forest in Humboldt? I understand what you’re saying, there’s a lot of top-heavy bureaucrats sitting in offices, but it’s next to impossible for a ranger to be everywhere, no matter how many are on patrol. A person can take a little electric chainsaw and cut that burl in 20 seconds, and you wouldn’t hear it even if you were a hundred yards away. Things like cutting a burl are next to impossible to catch unless they’re caught in the act.
You can hear those from 100 yards but yes, much quieter and a breeze through the trees would cover. But it’s not those that can give it away, Sounds from the vehicle and loading wood make sound too and this looks like more than a few minutes of work for no real payday when it comes down to it. But tweakers (if so) see a gold mine in anything so. Speaking of which, why can’t the get the $20 in copper that’s in all those flock cameras? Seems a lot less work.
I was thinking of the small burl,but yeah,cutting that redwood would be noisy.That sure is a beautiful log
Well, when you’re ready to cough up more tax money for personnel that were cut by your current administration and put a game cam on every tree let us know. Also, recent state law prohibits publishing of mug shots. But do blame the Personnel for everything. I’d say go apply to them, but it appears there are no local NPS jobs right now, and starting Ranger pay is only $50k a year. You aren’t going to get many applicants at that pay rate.
Stainless steel nails driven into burls, logs, etc. would go a long way toward discouraging cutting. 12p would be a good size, clip the head off before its sunk, then sink nail & it will be almost unnoticeable.
And that is even worse than the burl cutter.
A nail in a burl is not going to harm a couple of hundred year old trees.
Yikes! At least back in the day Earth Firsters made the sabotage obvious so no one would get hurt.
To my knowledge there’s only one shake and shingle mill remaining in N.W. California, in Crescent City. Those are shake bolts, premium 24”+. Watch for that overloaded beater Dodge pulled over, radiator boiling, on the bypass or Last Chance.
Klamath Glen was a legal big shake bolt producer 50 years ago. I can’t believe there is a demand with insurance being so restricted.
A few stainless steel nails driven into burls & logs would discourage cutting. It wouldnt take large nails and heads clipped off with a bolt cutter before sinking the nail & they would be almost unnoticeable.
Lets hear it for spiking burls!
Hopefully, you’re not an eco terrorist who was spiking logs to hurt loggers and mill workers in the past.
Tree spiking was a myth.
There is only one incident, decades ago in Mendocino, where it might have happened.
Nonetheless, HR’s idea is a bad one– for many reasons.
Although I do understand the frustration at this situation.
Right, but the level of awareness of even what was proved to be more myth than truth went through the roof. In marketing that’s half of your battle; getting people to engage in any BS you want to spew. Look at what comes out of some of our own governments department heads. It doesn’t have to be true, just louder than the person next to you. Only one seed has to be planted in someone’s head, and we have more than a few unhinged types around here that will do it for free, just piss them off enough.
A millworker almost killed in Cloverdale
That was the one incident.
You are correct though that the mill is a couple miles on the Sonoma side of the County line.
Working for a metal recycling business in Windsor, I drove the truck responsible for picking up the bloody saw blade in Cloverdale. It was huge, and I couldn’t believe that a spike could cause something this big to fly apart.
George Alexander was the victim’s name. Nearly killed him. Took out a big portion of his face. Can you imagine?
There was only one reported incident that caused injury locally, but many spikes were driven in the late eighties.
Metal detectors were tuned up, and some were caught during debarking.
The act was made a federal crime.
Had a spike crew park on the ranch. Followed them deep into timber company land. Bad hombres not afraid to fight when there’s five on one. Earth Firsters, as indicated by the large packet of photos I relieved them of.
Have a funny story about how it all worked out for them, but Kym wouldn’t like it.
So the tree spikers you followed into the woods carried incriminating evidence?
That’s pretty stupid, even for a hippie
There are local felons on facebook marketplace selling fresh cut, old growth redwood and claiming they can fill any size order have quite a rap sheet for theft. The name and face are in the ads and one looks strikingly familiar to the skinny fella in the video. Call him up for a meet, see if he pulls up in a dodge.
Nobody here is gonna do that. We just want to sit behind our computer and talk shit, haha
Meth is always involved check your local tweakers, so sick of tweaker thieves, they get caught and released the same day no matter what crimes they commit then when someone is forced to protect them selves or property from them they end up in jail, shits ass backwards, tweakers suck!
Although still very wrong to touch these trees…that is a bunion or nurl, not a burl. Otherwise they probably would have cut a lot more.
Who ever cut that has no idea what they are doing. That is a tumor style burl and completely worthless. There’s two types of burls, one puts off new redwood tree sprouts in abundance, the other is a sap heavy tumorus growth that has no sprouting ability and absolutely zero value. This was either a tourist or a meth head.
I am also a loop walker there and at all hours. Helps remove anxiety about the world at large. If I catch anyone being destructive to our trees, so will law enforcement.
Some humans just SUCK! Hope they bust
the coward thieves and make an example out of them!!
Poach eggs, not trees.
Hey Kym I have to called that number twice and called the sheriff’s once to give them the identity of the Poachers. Nobody has called me back!! Do they want to get these guys or not?!?!
It is the weekend. Sadly, that is a tough time to get through. Try again tomorrow morning. And then call us in the afternoon if you haven’t heard back. We’ll see what we can’t do. 707 932 0310
If convenient, visit the Sheriff’s Dept on Fourth St and make a report. They’d appreciate the info.
Dam burl, needs to be cut off, it’s a tree cancer! And that tree that’s laying on the floor have at it I say
could this be it?I stumbled upon it at a home I asked grok and he says it’s not redwood so I’m not a pro and it does look significantly different then the bark in the photo
i may have stumbled upon on.