[MPWG] Can You Help?

[Eric T Jones]

Interesting question.  In the U.S. an extensive biodiversity of species are 
used for food and medicine, both commercial and noncommercial.  While I 
don't know of any that have become extinct, what is apparent is that our 
natural resource agencies have rarely managed for them.  Consequently many 
foods and medicines are adversely impacted by other dominant management 
activities like logging, grazing, mountaintop removal, roadbuilding, and 
development.  For example, until recently Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia) 
which is used for treating ovarian cancer was considered a trash tree by 
managers and logging companies.  After clearcutting the forest for the fir 
trees, yew was scooped up into slash piles (along with the Devil's Club, 
mushrooms, ferns, maples, etc. etc.) and burned.  It is interesting to note 
that many local people in the northwest have long valued brevifolia for a 
range of purposes including fine furniture making, beads, floral 
decorations, etc.  These are often the same people vilified in the 
environmental community as the ones who will overharvest and degrade the 
resource.  It's only too bad they couldn't go in and at least salvage some 
of the resources before they were put into the slash pile and burned, don't 
you think?

My organization maintains an extensive species database for U.S. nontimber 
forest product species at www.ifcae.org/ntfp/ .  To my knowledge none of 
the over 1,300 species listed in the database are extinct but we would be 
very interested in learning of any that are.  We also maintain links to a 
variety of other databases where you can pinpoint information on threatened 
and endangered status, cultural info, and other.

Eric T. Jones, Ph.D.
Institute for Culture and Ecology
PO Box 6688
Portland, OR 97228-6688
www.ifcae.org



At 11/14/2003, you wrote:
>We are working with a reporter who has asked the question: Are there any 
>examples of food or medicien that has been lost because a plant species 
>has become extinct? While I think I can talk about plants with medicinal 
>or food value that are currently threatened or endangered, I can't come up 
>with any that have actually gone extinct. Any ideas or thoughts?
>
>Thanks for your help on this!
>
>Flo Oxley
>Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
>4801 La Crosse Avenue
>Austin, TX 78739
>(512) 292-4200 ext. 160
>oxley at wildflower.org
>
>Educating North America about the environmental necessity, economic value, 
>and natural beauty of native plants.
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>MPWG mailing list
>MPWG at lists.plantconservation.org
>http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/mpwg_lists.plantconservation.org
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