Tone-wood thief!

[JFrankParnell]

Mature bigleaf maple is particularly valuable as “tonewood” for use in guitars and other stringed instruments. The wood is prized in part because of its “flame” or “quilted” fibers, which provides a shimmering effect when cut to form the body of an instrument. The timber found in the single 32-inch-diameter tree Welches admitted to stealing was valued at $8,766.

www.seattlepi.com/local/crime/article/Olympic-Peninsula-tonewood-thief-I-poached-12505980.php

[newey]

What's surprising is that he got caught. Up in the U.P., stealing timber off Federal Land is pretty common, you can drive along the backroads and see where people have cut and dragged trees out from near the roadway in Winter. Chainsaw and a pickup truck, and you're in the lumber business. None of that is figured maple, though, and not from a National Park, either.

[cullenszoo]

It's a shame he couldn't hook up with the park service and do it legally. 

I live down the road from the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and they are constantly cutting down trees for various reasons. sometimes they leave the tree there to decompose but if the tree had a disease they remove it and it gets turned into firewood.