2015/07/01

NPR June 28, 2015: Wildlife Forensics Lab Uses Tech To Sniff, Identify Illegal Wood

Before you prosecute thieves, you have to know what they stole. It's the same for crimes against nature.

The world's only wildlife forensic lab is in southern Oregon. The lab usually specializes in endangered animal cases, but armed with a high-tech device, it's now helping track shipments of contraband wood.

There's a small woodshop at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Forensics Lab. But there's no sawdust, or power tools. The shop is more like an archive, containing samples of some of the rarest woods on the planet — African mahogany, Brazilian ebony and more.

The samples lean neatly on dozens of shelves. Lab director Ken Goddard flips through wooden planks the size of cellphones. They're used to help identify illegal shipments of rare woods.

"Basically you would not continue an investigation unless you're pretty sure you're dealing with endangered or threatened species," Goddard says. more