Environment: Tree Bandits

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Each fall, thousands of sightseers flock to Colorado's national forests to witness a spectacular display. As the days become colder, the small, oval leaves of the trembling aspen tree (Populus tremuloides) turn from green to bright gold, and stands of foliage glow in the mountains like mounds of Spanish doubloons. This spring, however, other, less aesthetically inclined aspen lovers have their eyes on the forests -- and their minds on real gold.

Forest rangers estimate that about 40 separate teams of treenapers are operating a $15 million-a-year black market in Colorado's renowned aspens. After the winter's last snowfall, but while the aspens are still dormant, the bandits uproot them and sell them to nurseries and landscapers for between $10 and $15 apiece, or door to door for up to $45. An industrious team can harvest as many as 30,000 saplings in a season. Who wants them? Says Forest Service Spokesman Hank Deutsch: "I guess a clump of aspen is a desirable attraction for people's yards."

The bandits use sophisticated techniques. Armed with radio scanners to keep track of Forest Service patrols, they drive into the forests by day and dig up hundreds of saplings. Then, after balling the roots in burlap, they ease the trees back into the ground and leave -- only to return at night, using infrared night-vision scopes, and load their booty into trucks. Says Timber Management Assistant Johnny Hodges: "We just find a lot of holes." That is easier than finding the diggers, who face a sentence of ten years and a fine of $10,000, the maximum penalty for stealing Government property. The rangers have yet to catch their first aspen thief.