The 2018 pilot season of Adventure Scientists’ Timber Tracking Project engaged
110 volunteers in a large-scale botanical collection effort to deter poaching
of bigleaf maple, a hardwood valued for its ecological importance and for its
attractiveness in furniture- and guitar-making. Our volunteers succeeded in
sampling from 1,023 bigleaf maples across California, Oregon, Washington,
and British Columbia. The resulting collections will fuel the research and
development of multiple wood identification technologies. With the potential
to tie suspect lumber back to its point of origin, these technologies represent
critical assets in the battle against the illegal timber trade.
