Experts Share Tips to Avoid Falling Victim of Log Theft

LUDLOW, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont isn’t facing a tree shortage, but the heavily regulated logging industry isn’t immune to some bad actors.

“There are bad apples in every bunch,” said Robbo Holleran, director of the Vermont Forestry Foundation.

Holleran has been doing forest management in Vermont for decades and says logging theft, or timber trespassing, is often unintentional. “Most of what we call timber transfer in Vermont is on uncertain limits, indisputable limits,” he explained.

But sometimes it’s intentional. Recently, a woman in Barre received a letter offering to compensate her for logging on her property. Keith Thompson, manager of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation Private Lands Program, says that this type of communication should always be considered suspicious. “There are a lot of extremely professional loggers out there,” Thompson said. “Most don’t need to knock on doors to get new customers.”

If forest owners aren’t careful, Thompson says they can end up with a loss in property value and face hefty fines. “In many of these cases, the contracts or agreements these landowners signed did nothing more than force them to sell their timber and, if anything, did very little to protect them from harm,” he said.

Thompson and Holleran say the best way to avoid getting scammed is to do your research. “Many people own forest land but don’t know anything about forestry and don’t do the forestry work,” Holleran said. “So there are forest managers, like me, and the loggers are the ones who do the work.”

“If you don’t have a forest manager, look them up online, do some research,” Thompson said.

According to the Natural Resources Agency, the logging industry contributes approximately $861 million in sales to the state’s economy and directly employs 6,600 people.

“Most loggers are extremely professional and care a lot about the job they are doing,” Thompson said.

If you need help managing a forest area on your property, the ANR has resources on its website.

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