By Sherri Taylor
News Editor

Laws in Louisiana have been passed and implemented to protect innocent and often absentee landowners from timber theft. In this state, reported theft cases number more than 200 each year, according to Investigator Jim Baldwin of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry.

Before the new statutes were legislated, paper work at the mills was not kept. When a log truck driver came to the gate, entered the scale area, he was asked where he was logging, what type trees were being cut, what company he worked for and for other information. Many times the answer was: "I'm not sure. Just put it under my boss' name."

A month later, that paperwork was destroyed after payment was made and no amount of detective work could discover where those trees actually came from. Such record keeping facilitated timber theft.

Today, when a truck leaves the woods, someone fills out a form called a load transport ticket, listing the parish, load number, scale ticket number, type tree, land owner and timber owner as well as date and signature of driver. Companies now keep records of all scale tickets for four years. Loaders keep log books. Records, scale tickets and log books are given to the land owner at the end of the harvest.

The ways timber theft is accomplished are varied, but basically there are five. A brochure explained one method.

A Louisiana landowners was offered $16,500 for all merchantable timber on a 26-acre tract. That smart landowner contacted the Office of Forestry, was advised to obtain a professional forester and received a bid of $88,000 for the same tract of timber.

"There are two reasons for the laws," said timber theft investigator Jim Baldwin. "To protect honest loggers and to aid our department in finding dishonest loggers."

The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry has oversight of timber theft, in addition to theft of livestock and other commodities. Baldwin and nine other investigators work the North Louisiana area. They report that less that one-half of one percent of loggers are involved in any timber theft action they have investigated.

"Only a few troublemakers make a lot of trouble," State Forester Paul Frey was quoted in the Louisiana Forestry Association's Forest & People magazine. The vast majority of loggers are honest, hardworking people.

Another problem investigators ran into in the past was partial payment. Unscrupulous loggers would make partial payment, promising the rest later. When land owners went to the District Attorney's office, they found that this was not treated as a criminal action. It was considered a civil suit and most landowners were unable to recover their money.

Today, the law stipulates that this is theft. A letter is sent out stating that the logger has ten days to pay the money or face arrest. Most pay.

One case that USDA&F agents worked was much more complicated. The logger worked under no less than 14 company names, some of which were real companies with which he had no association. He worked his con in three states, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas under 16 different names. His business phone was an answering service and he could only be reached by cell phone. He was finally arrested and served several years in a Federal Prison.

In another case, a logger in St. Tammany Parish signed a contract with a landowner to pay $20 per cord for the timber on their land. The land owner was promised $40,000 for his timber and some improvements as part of the operation. In this case, the land owner had no knowledge of timber values. He sold 40 acres of timber for the above named sum. He received only $3,500.

What investigators discovered was the land contained prime sawtimber, not pulpwood as he was told. By paying the customer on a per cord basis rather than a per thousand as is customary in sawtimber, he managed to walk away with thousands of dollars.

A report on the case states: During questioning of buyer prior to arrest he stated that he paid the landowner on the basis of three cords per thousand board feet. This worked out to $60 per cord instead of receiving $250 per thousand."

To prevent this type operation and undercounting of loads, experts suggest landowners use the lump sum settlement when selling their logs. They get their money up front without having to count log loads. There is less opportunity for dishonest loggers to steal from landowners.

In order to counter the lump sum method, one logger wrote a list, then signed it with the name of an LSU professor who had no knowledge of the matter.

The landowner had had his timber appraised at the amount of $1 million by a professional forester. To cover himself, the logger wrote, "Based on what I saw yesterday, and based on what similar tracts have cut in the past, careful logging and strict accountability could gross somewhere near $1.4 million worth of timber." The land owner agreed to a pay out as the timber was cut and ended up with only $325,000.

Another way investigators have uncovered that timber thieves operate is by using a copy machine and White-Out. They simply change the weight on scale records and steal the difference from land owners. In one recorded case, the logger changed the figures from 31.01 tons to 22.71 tons thereby accruing $488.20 for himself. Later he changed another ticket to read 26.67 instead of 35.86, keeping $571.56 that belonged to his customer.

How can landowner avoid timber theft? A few suggestions include clearly marking boundaries. Make arrangements to clearly mark and measure all trees before a sale. Know the value of your trees. Deal with reputable buyer. Hire a consulting forester to represent you. Even when that forester takes a portion of the sale, land owners save money when they use a forester's professional help.

Anyone who believes he has had trees stolen from him should contact the USDA&F Office of Forestry. In Monroe that number is 318-345-7595. IN Natchitoches it is 318-357-3126. For Olla, call 318-495-5218 and for Haughton phone 318-949-3225.

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