175 Cubic Metres of Beech From a State Forest Above Podgorci: a Struga Man Caught With the Chainsaw in His Hand

A hundred and seventy-five cubic metres of beech wood. Not one beech felled for firewood, but a quantity that takes whole truckloads. That is how much, according to the Interior Ministry, 46-year-old E.A. from the village of Podgorci near Struga cut down in a state forest above his village before police caught him with the chainsaw in his hand.

The operation was carried out by the Struga police and the Forest Police on 16 October. E.A. was caught illegally cutting unmarked beech trees - trees nobody had approved for felling. Further checks showed how much he had actually cut: 175 cubic metres of firewood. The damage to the public enterprise "National Forests" is estimated at 5,250,000 denars, a little over 85,000 euros.

A criminal complaint has been filed against him for theft and forest devastation. That's the first thing to say: one man, of his own free will, with a saw, cut down a forest that belongs to all of us, tree by tree, until he had cut enough to heat many households for a whole winter.

The second question is for those who guard the forest. You don't cut 175 cubic metres in an afternoon, nor carry it out in a backpack. How many weeks or months did this logging go on before anyone noticed? And was catching him in the act the result of regular surveillance, or the luck of a patrol happening by at just that moment?

Macedonia's forests don't only disappear in fires. They also disappear quietly, with a chainsaw, cubic metre by cubic metre - and are noticed only when the damage already runs to seven figures in denars.