Poachers chop at redwood trees to earn money for drugs (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Some of the tallest trees in the world are under threat from poachers who have found an unlikely target.

Huge knots of wood, or burls, which grow out of ancient redwood trees in northern California can be amputated from the tree, polished, then sold for thousands of dollars as table-tops and ornaments.

Parts of the Redwood National and State Park have been closed off after a 400-year-old tree was cut down and as more and bigger burls are being taken near former logging towns where the economy has collapsed.

The BBC went to the town of Orick in rural northern California to find out more.

Produced by Alastair Leithead and Regan Morris; filmed and edited by Luke Winsbury

auto-play video at the link: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27350415

[Tansy_Gold]

1. I love wood. . .

. . . and burls are beautiful, but trees are even more beautiful.

[Politicalboi]

2. They should put up cameras

Selling those tables should be against the law. We need to make more green laws that have severe penalties.

[mike_c]

3. Orick is a pretty sad place....

Lots of locals hate the national park because they perceive the park's expansion as being responsible for the decline of the logging industry and all its ancillary support services. The short film gives a pretty good sense of the flavor of the place. It's a sad, declining town clinging to hardscrabble life on the 101.

[defacto7]

4. K & R

I can't put into words how much of my soul is in the great trees and forests of this country.