Timber Mafia

[JoeyLowe]

Hi all!  I usually hang out on the sawing board, but thought I would share this here first.  Yesterday, I upgraded my Dish Satellite system and was perusing the added channels when I discovered a show in progress called Timber Mafia on the worldlink channel.  Seems there is a fella in Indonesia that has cornered the market on illegal timber sales.  And he rules by fear and intimidation.  Anyway, aside from his strongarm tactics against the government and forestry conservations, he has used kidnapping and murder to keep his rain forest production up to around 6 million BF per month.  Not wanting to get into the politics of it all, because we all know that is a worldwide problem.  However, it is worth mentioning that his largest customer is a well-known US company that manufacterers ramin blinds and shutters.  Anyway, watching these guys fell these huge trees was amazing.  They would cut several trees through and through and then push another tree over so they all fell at the same time. Did see one fine example of a tree barberpoling (verb?) some 30 feet up.  VERY SCAREY INDEED.  The other noteworthy event was watching the trees being floated down river.  Looked like a giant snake coursing its way downriver.  Logs were tied 5 wide and the chain was some three miles long.  Anyone else see this?

[Ron Wenrich]

We had a discussion on another board about this very problem.  The government is trying to figure out how to save their trees.  Their conclusion is to spike the trees to make them unprofitable.

The problem is, metal detectors will find spikes, so they are looking at something even more destructive - ceramic spikes.  They are looking at making the trees non-merchantible.

They have tried everything, but the mafia keeps everyone well funded, including government guards.  So far, water ways have been the most common means of transportation.  That should limit how far into the bush they can go.  

I'm not sure what the outcome was, as its been a couple of years.

[johncinquo]

do you mean barberchair, or is barberpoling something else?  BC is like when your log splits in the middle and the split carries up into the log as it falls, and it usually happens very fast.  I hate to see what a barber pole would look like!  

[JoeyLowe]

Yup, I meant barber chair.  Must have had haircuts on the mind.  I've never seen one actually happen and to see one of this magnitude was amazing.  No wonder they are so dangerous.  That tree split about 30 feet up and hinged at that height and fell straight down in just a matter of a blink of the eye.