Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 22:19:28 EDT From: CMDodd@aol.com To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2937$foo@default> Subject: Re: S. oreophlia, plant poaching, etc.
In a message dated 98-09-07 03:43:16 EDT, you write:
<< >A group of unknowledgeable field
collectors (the poacher types) pulled a bunch of plants from my bog
in Alablama early this summer.
You have my sympathies. Does this happen a lot in the U.S? What happens to
the
poached plants?
>.. I was told by the government to destroy thousands of
S. oreophila seedlings that I was growing back in the 80's.
Sorry to be nosey but why would your government do that?
>>
I am really not up on all the current laws about Federally regulated native
plants, but it is my understanding that something similar was ordered by one
of the states where S. oreophila occurs because the plants' origin could not
be determined. This was done to keep the populations geneticly pure. This did
not concern a private individual however but an institution trying to
propagate the local native populations of the species.
It seems a shame that a suitable site could not have been found far from the
other populations where the plants could have been grown out and form their
own colony. Also there are many growers who would have liked to have saved
them. While I understand some of the reasoning behind this it seems a waste
to destroy any critically endangered plant, however 'impure'.
This also ties in with the first question about poaching and plant
populations. I have talked to one local grower who wanted to get permits to
ship a Federally regulated native plant and was denied. The reason given was
that once someone held a permit for the particular species (even though it was
owned and propagated before it became endangered and regulated) that once one
held a permit for the species, any plant of the species was then covered by
the permit. The fear being that once you held a permit for say, S. oreophila,
you could then go steal wild plants, say you propagated them, and sell them.
I don't know if anyone has done this or even if it is a real problem, but as
you can see from the above e-mail, illegal collection still goes on.
On a brighter note, I was asked by a friend to go on a dig authorized by the
State of Florida with the native plant society where the D.O.T. was continuing
the belt-way around Orlando. They allowed collection of any and all plant
species wanted by interested parties, as long as the collectors were recorded,
and that plants could not be directly sold (propagations could). I collected
U. subulata, cornuta, S. minor, D. capillaris and P. lutea as well as a few
terrestrial orchids. Others were collecting ferns, Taxodium, asters, etc. I
was greatly impressed that the D.O.T. was willing to do this because
everything in the marked area was to be bulldozed, and even if it had not been
the drought we experienced would have destroyed all the moisture loving
species anyway.
I would encourage those wanting to field collect to contact the local plant
societies and the D.O.T. There may be plants doomed to be destroyed that could
be legally collected. If you have the oportunity please keep good collection
data. Perhaps the S. oreophila would not have been destroyed if their origin
had been known.
Cliff
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