Re: Plant mapping is "wrong" (long article)

Thomas K. Hayes (tkhayes@pennet.net)
Thu, 5 Dec 1996 21:13:54 GMT

Paul wrote:

>To announce precise locations of plants to the world is an invitation
>to have those plant populations ravaged to destruction. I can not
>support this and
can

For years I have been visiting many sites and I can only agree with Paul
about the plant populations being ravaged beyond recovery. I have seen one
site completely destroyed and several others severly damaged. What really
makes me mad is that it is not like any of the Sarracenia or drosera from
the S.E. US are hard to propagate. Why does anyone *need* to completely
remove everything other than greed? I freely admit to collecting from the
wild (get written permission from the landowners so there is no question if
you shoud be collecting) and I only do so where there are thriving colonies.
Two plants is all any self-respecting grower needs for their collection.
Having collected plants from a site which was totally picked clean, I was
able to subsequently reintroduce seedlingsthe same plants to their former
site. As of this spring, the 2 yr old S. flava seedlings were growing quite
well and I hope in my little way saved a population. I am worried that the
same thing may happen again one day, but I have to keep hoping people/a
company ( {New York/ USA,} if that helps) stop abusing the land for the
almighty dollar. It is completely disgusting what the actions of a ruthless
few can do..... If we provide the unscrupulous with exact maps to the
locations of their next check, there won't be any plants left for our kids
to see in the wild. That really disturbs me. There is nothing like
visiting sites I have been going to for years and seeing the plants in
nature, where they belong. I don't care what anyone says - no plant in a
pot could ever look better than a stand in the wild.

>By not publishing sites, we can not stop the public from looking for
>sites and then destroying those sites. But we can make it harder for
>them to find the sites instead of offering the information on the WEB,
>as is proposed.

I couldn't have worded it better.

>I hope those who have supported Plant Mapping do not take this as a personal
>attack. It is not intended as one. But I radically oppose such a move and
have
>argued why.

Again, well phrased.

Take care & keep on growing,

-Tom- & Krissy (in Pa where it is snowing and quite beautiful....)