Police and officers of the Forestry Department on operation in the Orange Walk District seeking illegal timber cutting in the area of the New River Pine Ridge, about six miles away from Crooked Tree, which stretches to the Orange Walk District to about a mile away from the New River Lagoon, found an illegal log cutting operation.

Last Friday morning, police found that illegal operators had already cut 32 pine logs. The men have since been charged by police with unlawful possession of forest produce and illegal hunting.

Forest officers said that the pine logs were undersized, measuring 6 to 15 feet and there were about a total of 1,300 board feet. The men will be taken to the Orange Walk Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, June 10.

Assistant Superintendent Selwyn Tillett, the Deputy Commander of Orange Walk District Police, said that the illegal log cutting is harmful to the environment and displaces birds – that lose their habitats. At the time when the three men were found, they were in possession of four blue headed parrots – three with feathers and one without feathers. Police remind people that these parrots are endangered species, and it is illegal to possess them.

The three men are residents of Carmelita, in the Orange Walk District.