It is sad to hear about the CP bog you described being destroyed. Part of
the problem here is that business concerns have money. Money makes clout,
clout makes pressure, and pressure makes laws. I don't know about
the situation you describe, but in many cases it is legal for companies to
destroy wetlands if they create replacement wetlands someplace else. Now,
anyone who has visited these replacement wetlands know they are often (maybe
usually or always) a joke---a square pond with a dozen plant species living
there, mostly just cat-tails. Also, there is an increasing opinion in some
political quarters that ``wet-lands'' are being defined too liberally. I
know I would have a difficult time explaining to someone who wants to build
a pulp mill that a *seasonally* wet area is a wetland---some
of the places I visited in the SE US recently appeared quite dry, but the
presence of so many Sarracenia revealed their true conditions.
>Why is it illegal for someone to collect endangered species, yet the
>equivalent to a nuclear bomb can be dropped on acres of Sarracenia by a
>corporation and not an eyelash is batted! ? Where is the Nature
>Conservancy? where are federal and state government laws that protect
>these species? I don't get it! Are these corporations above the law?
Many of these groups you mentioned are understaffed, underfunded, overworked,
and their resources are stretched to the limit. If you are outraged, see
what *you* can do...volunteers are always appreciated at your favorite
not-for-profit group, whatever fits your political fancy (greenpeace,
audobon, nature conservancy, sierra club, etc.).
>I really don't feel that small collections made by responsible hobbiests
>is the problem. Mass collection for trade is bad, but by far, the worst
>threat to Sarracenia stands in the south is habitat destruction by
>developers and corporations.
Sure, someone going and collecting a few S.purp venos seeds is not really
a problem. What is a problem is when the habitat destruction you bemoan, or
competition/habitat-alteration from non-native species reduces the
populations enough that collectors do have impact.
Besides, the collections that I was irritated about were of plants in places
that have already been widely collected. Seeds from Angelina TX, pipeline
site, are already widely distributed. So why do people collect from these
sites? Because they are *not* being responsible hobbiests. They are just
being greedy hobbiests who want plants *now*. And I'm sure as heck not
going to reveal the locations of rare plants to people. I've heard (but have
not personally verified) that people like Phil Sheridan, Bill Scholl, and
others who do a lot of field work are absolutely silent about where their
plant locations are.
OK, I've been on the soapbox way too much lately.
B