Birch Bark Bandits

Property owner Cy Turnbladh discusses where and how thieves removed large portions of birch bark from trees on the property of Hands On Art Gallery over Memorial Day weekend. Photo by Len Villano.

When Cy Turnbladh and Karon Ohm took their usual evening walk through their Fish Creek property on May 29, they never thought they’d discover something as unusual as the theft of bark from their birch trees.

“We went out in the morning, and everything was fine,” says Turnbladh. “Then we had a busy day, and we went out again at night. And we looked, and we said ‘My God, our trees are stripped.’”

The thieves seemingly used a buck knife and claw hammer to peel large sections of bark off of about 10 of Turnbladh and Ohm’s birch trees on their property adjacent to Hands On Art Studio. Most of the trees were stripped very cleanly, using a process which involves cutting two rings around the tree at varying heights and connecting them with a straight line down the trunk. That line is used as a starting point for peeling off the bark.

The thieves did not cut deeply enough to kill the trees, and they were very selective about which trees they stole from, choosing to cut from only those with clean, white bark.

All of the evidence led Turnbladh to believe that the thieves were professionals.

“After we got over the initial shock, we just marveled at the consistency of it,” he says.

Turnbladh found multiple footprints and a claw hammer at the site of the theft. The Door County Sheriff’s Department is currently examining the claw hammer as part of their ongoing investigation.

Nicholas Crawford, President of the Wisconsin Arborists Association, says that he hasn’t heard of any other birch bark thefts, and according to Sheriff Terry Vogel no similar thefts have been reported in the area. That doesn’t mean, however, that no one else’s trees have been stripped.

“It’s kind of a unique theft,” Vogel says. “You could really go on someone’s land and get [the bark], and they wouldn’t ever know.”

About 10 trees were stripped of sections of Birch Bark on Cy Turnbladh and Karon Ohm’s Fish Creek property. Photo by Len Villano.

All told, the thieves stripped about 115 square feet of bark off of Turnbladh and Ohm’s trees. Turnbladh says that he discovered online that birch bark can be sold for nearly $20 per square foot to those looking to use it for crafts or other purposes, meaning the thieves made off with roughly $2,300 worth of material.

Turnbladh hopes that his discovery will not only lead to the thieves’ arrest, but also spur landowners to grow more vigilant about what’s happening on their property.

“We’re a pretty trusting community up here in Door County,” he says. “It’s a shame when stuff like this happens, but we have to recognize that it does.”