Man charged with stealing saplings from forests

TACOMA – A man has been arrested on charges of stealing saplings worth $62,000 from at least five national forests in Washington and Oregon and selling them to nurseries.

Greg A. Gray, of the southwestern Washington town of Oakville, was arrested last week and is scheduled for a bail hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court. He has been indicted on 36 counts of theft of government property and 35 counts of money laundering

“This is one of the largest investigations of forest products theft we have ever conducted in Oregon and Washington,” Ron Pugh, chief of Forest Service criminal investigations in the two states, told the Olympian newspaper in Olympia.

Gray is accused of stealing saplings, largely fir and mountain hemlock and mostly from the Gifford Pinchot and Mount Hood forests between August 2000 and July 2003.

Each theft count represents $1,500 to $2,000 worth of trees, said Tom Knappenberger, a Gifford Pinchot spokesman.

The two-year probe began with “evidence after the fact,” Pugh said. “Hundreds of trees were missing. There were holes in the ground where there used to be trees.”

Investigators interviewed personnel at more than 60 nurseries around the Pacific Northwest who said they bought trees from Gray, he added.

Theft of small forest products is a chronic problem in the region, Pugh said.