Leader of tree poaching ring that started Olympic Peninsula forest fire is sentenced
A man accused as part of a tree-poaching ring suspected of illegally harvesting maple trees in Olympic National Forest has been sentenced. The group’s activities led to a massive forest fire in 2018.
Andrew Wilke, 39, was convicted in July of conspiracy, theft of public property, depredation of public property, trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber and attempting to traffic in unlawfully harvested timber. He was sentenced Monday to one year, eight months in prison.
The jury did not convict Wilke of two federal charges related to the forest fire: setting timber afire and using fire in furtherance of a felony. Testimony at trial was not able to directly tie him to starting the fire.
Prosecutors recommended Wilke serve a 36-month sentence for his crimes, noting that Wilke led the three-person poaching ring that “indisputably started the fire,” according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
Between April and August 2018, Wilke and a crew of associates removed maple trees from the Elk Lake area of Olympic National Forest and transported the timber to a mill in Tumwater, according to the release. Wilke used forged permits to sell the wood.
The type of maple the defendants harvested is highly prized and used to produce musical instruments.
The group’s illegal harvesting led to the Maple Fire in August 2018, according to the release. Wilke led two other people Aug. 3 in deciding to cut a maple tree that had a wasp’s nest near its base. To remove it, the group lit the nest on fire and then failed to extinguish it, leading to a forest fire that consumed more than 3,300 acres of protected land by November.
At trial, the two other members of the poaching group testified that Wilke was standing next to the nest when it was lit on fire, “and therefore appeared to have set the fire,” according to the release. Because the fire was set at night, however, the two others did not see his exact actions. The two testified that they did not know exactly how the fire started.
The case was the first time prosecutors have used DNA evidence from trees in a federal criminal trial, according to the release. At the trial, a research geneticist for the USDA Forest Service, testified that the wood Wilke sold was a genetic match to the remains of three poached maple trees investigators had discovered in the Elk Lake area.
Based on the evidence, the jury concluded the wood Wilke sold the mill had been stolen, according to the release. The DNA evidence also concluded that Wilke had unlawfully harvested and sold wood from seven additional maple trees – but the precise locations of those trees have not been determined.
This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 12:20 PM with the headline "Leader of tree poaching ring that started Olympic Peninsula forest fire is sentenced."
