Chainsaw massacre: tree poaching hits Canada amid lumber shortage

Officials on Vancouver Island say at least 100 trees have been illegally cut down, leaving one stump with a face carved into it

Two tree stumps signaled to Larry Pynn that something was wrong.

Jutting from a mossy forest floor in western Canada, the fresh stumps were the final remnants of two western red cedars that had been chopped down by chainsaw. Nearby, a set of deep tire tracks ran for nearly a kilometer in the mud before terminating at the main road.