Think of it as a different sort of sting operation.
Two former Hood Canal-area residents have been indicted on eight federal felony counts stemming from an effort to burn a bees’ nest that was interfering with their attempts to illegally harvest a valuable maple tree in the Olympic National Forest. Their attempt to burn the beehive resulted in a forest fire that consumed 3,300 acres and cost $4.5 million to fight, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.
The indictment alleges that, between April and August 2018, Justin Andrew Wilke and Shawn Edward Williams were involved in cutting down and selling old-growth big-leaf maple trees on public land. These trees often contain what is called “figured” wood, which is coveted by luthiers for its often spectacular grain used for guitars, violins and other stringed instruments.
The indictment alleges that in August 2018 the men attempted to take a large maple tree in the Olympic National Forest that contained a bees’ nest, making it particularly tricky to cut down. Their solution was for Wilke to pour gasoline on the nest and light it on fire. The blaze quickly ran out of control — despite their efforts to douse it with water bottles — and the resulting conflagration, known as the Maple Fire, burned out of control for several days, according to the federal charges.
That tree was just one of several the two men had scouted and cut down in the area around Elk Lake and Lena Lake, according to the indictments. They would cut down the trees, carve out large blocks of finely figured wood and take them to a property near Lilliwaup, Mason County, where they were then sold to a lumber mill in Tumwater, according to the indictment. The men purportedly presented the mill owner with falsified permits showing the wood had been harvested from private property.