[MPWG] Deer Foraging Threatens Ginseng Survival

[Cafesombra at aol.com]

a MPWG message dated 2/11/05 writes:

McGraw  said there are three options: Do nothing and watch ginseng likely  
disappear from the landscape; reintroduce deer predators such as  
mountain lions and wolves; or change hunting regulations that would lead  
to a reduction in deer populations.



This is the same old predictable old-school forestry lip service to caring  
about the situation.  Bring in wolves to kill local toddlers and beloved  pets 
or issue more hunting licenses.  This is thinking inside of a box  where the 
real problem glares at us obvious-by-omission.  The fact of  the matter is, 
forest fragmentation is the underlying and overwhelming problem  demanding our 
collective concern here.  Yes we have killed or driven  off the predators but we 
have also opened up (ripped and scarred) the landscape  to create ideal 
herbivore conditions.  The hunters/sportsmen are  a strong and well organized 
political force. I do not mean to take an  anti-hunting stance at all.  But here in 
Pennsylvania when the deer  populations begin to drop at all, not even 
getting close to levels that  would help, say, the ginseng, hunters begin to gnash 
there teeth  and wave their campaign contributions in the air demanding 
something be  done, if only for the sake of the tourism dollars hunting brings  into 
our Commonwealth... We've seen too that lymes disease is more  prevelant in 
fragmented places than in the contiguous forest, there is more  lymes disease in 
a suburban neighborhood of Philadelphia than there is in  the deepent hemlock 
groves of the Allegheny National Forest.  The  lymes-carrying tick 
notoriously lives on the deer.  So we'd better issue  more hunting licenses (and relax 
the safety zone regulations, let them shoot  into people's backyards and over 
the off ramps of Turnpike 76), or  introduce wolves and cougars into the gated 
communities of the Main  Line, or do nothing. 
Why do we associate the word "reforestation" only with developing nations  
and mine reclamation zones?  What about serious attention to planting  ginseng?  
planting it in the gated communities if we have to in order to  help it 
survive?  and what about planting trees?  There's a radical  idea.    
Best regards everyone, Jennifer Chesworth
_www.herbalistswithoutborders.org_ (http://www.herbalistswithoutborders.org/) 

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