DNA ID's Timber Thieves

[Mark Godlesky]

I didn't realize how much of an issue this was in the U.S. Pretty cool that technology is helping capture these crooks.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/tree-dna-helps-convict-washington-timber-thief-after-fire/2021/07/09/926bfac8-e11f-11eb-a27f-8b294930e95b_story.html

[Jacques Gagnon]

Work with DNA-based tools has been initiated as far back as the mid- to late 1990s. It is nice to see science at work in helping people with matters linked to laws and regulations.

Here is a short piece dating back to 1997 (look at page 3) from the Canadian Forest Service.

https://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/pubwarehouse/pdfs/4875.pdf

[Bill Dufour]

They are also using it for bear poachers.
Bill D

[Alex Zeller]

I watched a TV show about how the police caught a murderer using tree DNA. The guy used his truck to haul the body to a remote part of some woods and while removing it a couple of seeds fell from the tree he was parked under. The police found the seeds and put them into evidence. The case went cold. When reexamined they matched the DNA to the specific tree where the body was. At the time the cops kind of dismissed it as a long shot.

[Bill Dufour]

Problem with the seed dna is it will only be 50% of the parent tree. Of course it could be both male and female from the same tree so then it would be 100% the same dna.
Bill D

[Alex Zeller]

Problem with the seed dna is it will only be 50% of the parent tree. Of course it could be both male and female from the same tree so then it would be 100% the same dna.
Bill D

Even if half the DNA came from another tree it's most likely very close to the tree the seeds came from.