What began as an inspection by a Yukon forestry official has become an RCMP investigation into a suspicion of timber being stolen from Crown land.

RCMP Cpl. Erich Heins from B.C.'s forest crime investigation unit was in the Yukon last week with two other officers from the unit. They conducted a search warrant on a private property located on the west side of the Atlin Road, in between Little Atlin and Atlin Lake.

Heins said today the unit was called upon when the natural resources officer from the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources determined the situation warranted additional investigation beyond what would normally occur under the Yukon timber regulations.

As a result of the search warrant, the wood was seized and transported to the site of the old forestry offices situated on the Alaska Highway just north of Two Mile Hill, across from the site of the former truck weigh station.

'In this case, much of the timber was situated on a piece of property where a mill is located and there was a concern that a bunch of logs could be turned into lumber and evidence would disappear,' Heins said.

It's estimated that 250 cubic metres were seized, according to information provided by the local RCMP detachment.

The matter is still under investigation and the identity of the person or persons under suspicion has not been released.

A couple of locals familiar with the price of heavy equipment rentals have suggested the cost of moving the wood to Whitehorse was likely upwards of $30,000. A dozen or so private dump trucks, a loader and backhoe were working over a period of days last week during the seizure.

Asked how much the bill was, and who will foot the bill for the seizure, Heins declined to be specific but did say the matter is a shared investigation between the RCMP and the Yukon government.

In B.C., said Heins, wood seized in a criminal investigation is often sold and the money placed in a trust until the case is concluded, one way or the other.

The corporal said the issue with timber is that it's a perishable product, and its value diminishes the longer it sits outside as raw, unprocessed material.

Selling off the logs and holding the money is a means of retaining the value, Heins explained.

He said he still needs to talk with the Crown lawyer handling the file to determine what will be done with the wood seized last week.

Yukon government spokesman Ron Billingham of the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources said today a natural resources officer was doing a routine land use inspection in the area when he came across stumps and other obvious signs of logging.

There had been no logging permit issued for the area in question, and because of the 'magnitude of what he found,' the matter moved from the hands of the government to the RCMP, Billingham said.

As a rule of thumb, a standard logging truck will carry approximately 35 cubic metres.

Given the estimate of 250 cubic metres seized, the quantity is equivalent to seven loads of a regular logging truck.

Information obtained by the Star suggests the wood at the Atlin Road site was a mixed bag, from full-length saw logs to firewood, and shorter logs, some of which has to be bucked up to fit inside the dump trucks.