Tree DNA helps convict Washington timber thief after fire
July 9, 2021
FacebookTwitterEmail
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) A federal jury has convicted a timber thief who authorities said started a large forest fire in Washington state, a case that prosecutors said marked the first time tree DNA had been introduced in a federal trial.
The jury deliberated for about seven hours before convicting Justin Andrew Wilke, 39, on Thursday of conspiracy, theft of public property, depredation of public property, and trafficking and attempted trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber, the U.S. Attorney s Office for Western Washington said in a news release.
The wood he sold to a mill in the city of Tumwater had been harvested from private property with a valid permit, Wilke said. But a research geneticist for the U.S. Forest Service, Richard Cronn, testified that the wood he sold genetically matched the remains of three poached trees.
ZIP Advertisement
Tree DNA helped convict a Washington State timber thief after a fire. He faces up to 10 years behind bars Share Updated: 11:08 PM EDT Jul 9, 2021 Associated Press
Tree DNA helped convict a Washington State timber thief after a fire. He faces up to 10 years behind bars Share Updated: 11:08 PM EDT Jul 9, 2021
Hide Transcript
Show Transcript the U. S. Could potentially be facing its worst drought in 1200 years. The Guardian says the heatwave affecting the US West, a simultaneously breaking hundreds of temperature records, exacerbating a historic drought and prime in the landscape for a summer and fall of extreme wildfire. Kathleen Johnson, an associate professor of earth system science at the University of California in Irvine said the drought is on track to become the worst we ve seen in at least 1200 years in its old linked directly to human cost. Climate change, rivers and reservoirs in California have been dryin
Tree DNA helps convict Washington timber thief after fire q13fox.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from q13fox.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Scientists at Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service have demonstrated that DNA extracted from water samples from rivers across Oregon and Northern California can be used to estimate genetic diversity of Pacific salmon and trout.
The findings, just published in the journal Molecular Ecology, have important implications for conservation and management of these species, which are threatened by human activities, including those exacerbating climate change.
âThere has been a dearth of this kind of data across the Northwest,â said Kevin Weitemier, a postdoctoral fellow at Oregon State and lead author of the paper. âThis allows us to get a quick snapshot of multiple populations and species all at once.â
OSU, USFS researchers use new method to track salmon, trout genetic diversity
Jonny Armstrong, Oregon State University
A spawning redband trout (O. mykiss) from the Upper Klamath Basin.
CORVALLIS, Ore. (KTVZ) – Scientists at Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service have demonstrated that DNA extracted from water samples from rivers across Oregon and Northern California can be used to estimate genetic diversity of Pacific salmon and trout.
The findings, just published in the journal Molecular Ecology, have important implications for conservation and management of these species, which are threatened by human activities, including those exacerbating climate change.
“There has been a dearth of this kind of data across the Northwest,” said Kevin Weitemier, a postdoctoral fellow at Oregon State and lead author of the paper. “This allows us to get a quick snapshot of multiple populations and species all at once.”