This happened behind nightly locked gates not on wide open sites for anyone to come onto. Loggers have stolen, culvert pipe, gravel, cross ties, telephone poles, and ladder stands from property we lease that they logged. Even had one of the crew tell us he carried his 06 with him all the time because they were always seeing deer. They push all the topsoil off of green fields they used for load out areas. They went down roads when they werent even logging that area with a skidder with the front blade down and took the crown out of the rd which filled in the ditches and washed the road out. They filled in the water turnouts we had rather than pushing it another 10 ft to leave it open. Oil changes done straight onto the ground. Old filters piled up and burnt. Junk tires from the trucks and trailer left scattered and coffee cups and lunch sacks wherever they could toss em.

Caution tape they ignore. If they tell you they will replace something they tore up its probably not going to happen.

The only logging crew Ive been around who showed any respect that we had no problems out of and went above and beyond to leave it better than before was the landowners own logging crew and not some independent logger. They brought in all kinds of gravel, made water turnouts. waterbars, crowned the roads, and actually tried to make the fields bigger for us and cut around the shooting houses so we could see better. If all loggers did as they do we all would be praising them.

Fortunately on our land they never bother them and just cut around it.

This thread reminds me why I can't stand a thief. Had a camera come up missing when logging crews came through thinning last month. Cut the tree it was on.

Dealing with this now - crews just finished planting and gate post was taken down and all three gates have been wide open. Im sure it will be left up to us to put the gate back up when they are out. Cant find two feeders that were up when they started cutting - could be in a pile somewhere or could have been stolen.

I dealt with this one year. I marked the trees with my loc ons in them. They fell them and destroyed the stands. They left the trees too, no reason to have cut them and not take them.

It has been my experience that most loggers are decent folks who will not intentionally damage or steal property. Of course there are some bad actors but they are the exception. Just last week, a logging crew began setting up for a timber harvest on one of my leases. The dozer operator offered to help move a ladder stand because he was concerned it may get hit by skidders. When I asked him about two other stands deeper in the timber, he said that he had already flagged around them and told his crew about them. He is a hunter too and treated us the way he wants to be treated. That is the kind of logger I'm accustomed to dealing with.

Fortunately this for us as well. ^^^^^.



God Bless,
David B.

they are like every body in this world, some "GOOD" ones, some" BAD" ones, we got "GOOD" ones,did not destroy any stands, they cut one tree that had a camera on it, took the camera off the tree and returned to one of our members, this was in dallas co.

Honest questions... Is it the loggers responsibility to find the owner of the stand? Are they suppose to leave that tree standing? If hunters know that an area is going to be cut, should they go in and removed fixed stands? Or do they not have a warning?


I’m so glad I hunt family land and don’t have to deal with the issues like this.

Much of what loggers do and how they leave the land, roads, logging decks and gates is a result of what the landowner requires. I require that all roads are returned to previous condition, all trash is removed from the site, logging decks are cleaned up and gates locked each and every day. I pay a managing forester to ensure it is done to my specifications and he helps select logging crews that will do the job I want done. Lots of landowners simply want the cash and don't care so much about the condition in which the property is left after the logging operation is complete. Yes, there are bad logging crews, but a lot of times it is the lack of concern from the landowner that is the issue.

Had a logging crew cutting a neighbor's property fail to mark property lines, roll across a three strand bared-wire fence in multiple places and cut about 40 white oak trees. On top of that, they ran over a ladder stand and threw all of their trash across the fence onto my property. This act constituted theft and after going round and round with them, we finally received compensation.

If it doesn't belong to you then IT DOESN'T BELONG TO YOU.

Of course it’s not their responsibility to figure that out. And I do realize a stand in their way represents a pain in the ass to have to fool with. I honestly expected to find it laying on the ground half run over and bent up from trees and equipment running it over (which I would be fine with - it’s my fault it was in the way). My point was it took extra effort on their part to load something up that wasn’t theirs to take home. I don’t think it was locals that came in afterward either. The location where it was is not close to a road or woods trail, and there is no obvious route to it to someone not familiar with the property.

As I said previously, lesson learned on my part for the future. I was curious as to how customary it was for items in the way to disappear.

If the hunters know comes into play. Some landowners will notify ahead of time and some wont. Ya show up one day and there is logging equipment all over.
Loggers leaving a tree standing imo would depend on if clear-cut or thinning. Finding the owner is not the loggers responsibility but not stealing it if they take it down is their responsibility.

I’ve seen more people running a cutter leave the stand and the tree.
I’ve had good luck if I forget to move one.

In my business I know lots of logger and crews. Most collect cameras and stands and let the landowners know so they can have them picked up. I would check with the logger and make sure he doesn't have them.

What Rebelman said - not normal.
Stealing is stealing.

I always make a point of putting red flagging around all ladder stands before logging and I have never had a problem.

Not normal at all. The loggers that "collect" cameras and stands could be easily charged with stealing if they ran across the wrong person. But they know most of the time they are dealing with leasors who likely won't say anything. In the eyes of the law a logging crew collecting stands and cameras is no different than the neighbors down the road doing it.

Same crew that did this bent up a ladder stand.

We cut about 300 acres 15 years ago, I went down when they finished and there were about 6 trees still left scattered over the whole cutover (other than the SMZs) and they all had a ladder stand leaning up against them. Then we hired some guy to come in and run that big ass chopper through all the left over and he damn near ran over everything of value out there. Last time I saw him he had one of my old 16' steel tripods all tangled to hell and back in his D-7 undercarriage. I least I left laughing a little.

they dont get paid to remove stands they get paid to cut trees so they usually do 1 of 2 things cut the stand down let it get destroyed and leave it on the ground or take it home as a bonus of being attached to the their tree. weve always had to take our stands down before they cut if we dont we know what to expect alot of damaged and missing stands. i wouldnt leave anything in the woods i didnt want crushed by a falling tree