Tree poacher banned from parks where he cut part of redwood, California officials say
A California man was sentenced on Friday for poaching chunks of a redwood tree in California, officials said.
Derek Alwin Hughes, 37, of Orick, is accused of cutting off “burl” from the base of a tree in the Redwood National and State Parks in 2018, Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
He was sentenced to two years probation, 400 hours of community service and is also prohibited from entering Redwood National and State Parks, the release stated.
Burl is a massive “knobby growth” on redwood trees, according to the National Park Service. It stores the genetic code of the parent tree, so if it falls, the burl can sprout another tree.
Burl is illegal to harvest.
Investigators from Redwood National and State Parks tracked the poached burl to Hughes’ home after using tire-track evidence and photo monitoring to obtain a search warrant, the release said.
Officers found chunks of burl in Hughes’ home that matched the tree, the release said.
Hughes is accused of removing burl from old-growth redwoods near the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway — a 10-mile drive in Northern California through thousands of redwood trees.
His public defender, Wade Orbelian, declined to comment.
But burl poaching isn’t uncommon in the national and state parks.
It occurs every year, according to Candace L. Tinkler, chief of interpretation and education at Redwood National and State Parks.
When pieces of a redwood are removed, it can have lasting impacts on the tree. Tinkler said those impacts depend on the size of the cut.
“Coast redwoods are very resilient and can slowly heal wounds with new growth and bark,” she said. “However, if a large burl is removed, the poacher is also drastically reducing the tree’s ability to regenerate new growth.”
A burl removal can also make the tree susceptible to falling over from high winds, she said. And it can bring disease and infection into the tree, the National Park Service said.
“This is an excellent example of a large partnership effort between California State Parks, the National Park Service and Redwood Parks Conservancy to protect our park’s resources,” Tinkler told McClatchy News. “Multiple agencies, people and park divisions were involved in this case at some level. It is great to see this come to a successful resolution.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2021 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Tree poacher banned from parks where he cut part of redwood, California officials say."
