Live Burls: Poaching the Redwoods

In 2013, an alarming number of National Park redwood trees were shorn of their knobby protrusions, called burls. The trees were disfigured by thieves aiming to sell distinctive burl wood to luxury furniture retailers. One team was bold enough to fell an entire tree for its burl. Kirk Crippens and Gretchen LeMaistre read about these trees in the news and were motivated to go and see them. Rangers from the Redwood National and State Parks assisted them in accessing and photographing each site. From 2013 to 2016, they made many visits to the National Park redwood fores ts of Humboldt County, California. On their first trip to the region, they passed a tourist attraction called Trees of Mystery. The entrance featured a 50 - foot effigy of an American folklore lumberjack, Paul Bunyan , and a large souvenir store with a neon sign that read, Live Burls. At first they laughed at the spectacle; but the sign brewed in the back of their minds as they began to explore the lure and the lore of giant redwoods