Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 22, 1995 TAG: 9504240025
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOUNT VERNON LENGTH: Medium
The paulownia, also known as the empress or princess tree, is prized for its durable wood, popular in Japan for making musical instruments and ceremonial wedding chests. Poachers can get as much as $10,000 a tree, police said.
Park Police said that the arrests have come within the last four months as the paulownias have been cut with chain saws on National Park Service property. Most of the thefts occurred during the day.
The trees, indigenous to China and brought to the United States in the 19th century, have dwindled in number because of mass poaching in recent years, said Peter Beckjord, a forest specialist who heads the National Paulownia Center in Beltsville, Md.
``That's why the thieves are getting bolder and bolder,'' Beckjord said.
Japan's population of paulownia trees was reduced severely by a virus during the 1960s and '70s, Beckjord said.
The most recent tree theft occurred Tuesday along the George Washington Parkway near Mount Vernon.
Police said a couple walking their dogs along the bike path spotted three men loading logs into a pickup truck. When the men saw the couple, they dumped the logs and fled. The couple called the Park Police, who arrived minutes later.
As police were examining the 1-foot diameter logs, the truck drove by and the men were quickly arrested.
Daniel W. Burns, 36; William Lantinga, 27; and Chandler Lewis, 25, all of Culpeper, were charged with attempted larceny of government property, a felony.
by CNB