Building a Future: Scientists Build Lumber Library to Identify Poached Wood

With rare wood being used for furniture, wood instruments and other high-end consumer products, illegal logging is the third-largest transnational crime. In the Northwest United States, scientists and citizens are collaborating to stop illegal lumber from entering the country. At the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics laboratory, experts are building a database — or wood library — with a goal of identifying timber crimes, victims and suspects at a local, federal and international level.