[MPWG] Re: Poachers endanger Kentucky's ginseng

[Eric T. Jones]

At 6/7/2005, you (Alan Trachtenberg) wrote:
>
>I find it useful to know what the general public is reading/watching about 
>medicinal plants.  From a policy point of view, it's almost as important 
>as the science.  If you feel that the article was propaganda, you may 
>state so, as you did.  It would be helpful the hear more from you about 
>what interests you believe are doing the propagandizing and what the major 
>misstatements are.  For myself, I'd like to see things like this continue 
>to be posted.  The people on this list all have a knowledge base that they 
>can use to evaluate these pieces, with or without the assistance of your 
>critiques.

Good point, I suppose it is important to know what the public is 
reading.  I also agree that it would be good to provide some critique, 
perhaps critique accompanying the original post would be good criteria for 
posting.  Below are some initial critiques, comments, and thoughts, 
preceded by my initials. ej:

>http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050606/NEWS0104/506060393
>Poachers endanger Kentucky's ginseng
>Dye, tracking used to protect root
>By Alan Maimon
>amaimon at courier-journal.com
>The Courier-Journal
>SPEWING CAMP BRANCH, Ky. -- With the arrival of spring, Mammoth Cave
>National Park rangers say they are bracing for thousands of visitors --
>some with larceny on their minds.

ej - It would be nice to have some historical context.  For example, what 
is the historical use patterns in what is now the park?  Are their 
old-timers such as with the Olympic National Park or Great Smokies that 
traditionally gathered plants and are engaged in acts of everyday 
resistance?  If there was a long history of human interaction with ginseng 
population in the area what are the consequences for the population of 
stymieing that interaction?  History doesn't make contemporary theft okay, 
but it may offer insights into why people are behaving the way they 
are.  Are all incidents labeled theft actually theft if they are linked to 
historical gathering traditions that are supposed to be legally protected 
by customary claim laws?  Are there any off-reservation Native American 
gathering (legal) rights in the area that aren't being considered by 
management (a widespread problem across the U.S.)

>Their bounty: ginseng, a root that can sell for as much as $400 a pound.
>
>But harvesting ginseng is illegal at Mammoth Cave, and some plants there
>have been dyed pink and wired with motion detectors or tracking devices
>that send out a radio locator signal.

ej - What studies have been done looking at the environmental impacts of 
such technological solutions to the health of the ginseng population?  What 
alternatives have been explored such as inviting harvesters to help monitor 
patches against "theft."  Such a strategy might be enticing to harvesters 
in exchange for the right to camp and harvest in their patches.

>Rangers say these measures are necessary because overzealous poaching has
>threatened to all but eliminate the root at Mammoth Cave.

ej - What proof?  I don't deny any plant can be vulnerable to overharvest 
but as stated with reference to rigorous studies over time it could just be 
the words of a frustrated ranger.  Personnel across various land 
managements have repeatedly made such claims in interviews but without 
monitoring to back it up.  It's not that their observations over time don't 
count for something but unless done systematically their claims shouldn't 
be the base for management decisions.  Like harvesters observations, they 
should be taken seriously as concerns to follow-up on with scientific 
studies.  A great way to accomplish that is through participatory 
monitoring processes involving management, science, harvesters, and other 
stakeholders.  The Medicinal Plant Working Group has multistakeholder 
studies underway, though to my knowledge they are not working with harvesters.

>The park's efforts reflect growth of ginseng theft in Kentucky and across
>the country in parks, forests and even on private property. At stake in
>some places is the very survival of the root, which is used as a stimulant.

ej - Some references here would be great but you typically don't get that 
sort of thing in a newspaper article and that is why I think it is risky to 
repost them.  Many policy and management decisions seem to be being made 
based such accounts.  For example, a person (call him Deep Throat if you 
want, though if you ask I'll reveal the source) in OMB told me that one of 
the major factors in creating the federal botanical harvesting law known as 
Section 339 was because of the accounts of theft he kept reading about in 
newspapers.  Incidentally, he apparently worked closely with a FS person 
(also have that name) to craft the law and insert it on the 2000 
Appropriations as a rider.  What could have been a transparent process to 
craft a really great and much needed law instead came across as a 
backhanded effort to further hamper commercial harvesting.

>"Poaching has led to overharvesting, and that makes us concerned about the
>sustainability of ginseng," said Rex Mann, a supervisor at the Daniel Boone
>National Forest. "There is definitely a dwindling supply."

ej - Where is the proof linking poaching and overharvesting?  Personally I 
believe the statement is probably true in the case of ginseng in a Kentucky 
Park but it's stated so matter-of-fact without offering alternative 
possibilities.  For example, a recent article in Science by McGraw and 
Furedi indicates that expanding deer populations are having an impact on 
ginseng populations in central Appalachia.  In many interviews with 
harvesters they talked about the same thing as well as exploding 
populations of wild turkey.  What similar forces might be work in the 
park?  Acid Rain?  Pollution from coal mining?  Maybe nothing but if their 
situation is like most other places they aren't even investigating it and 
therefore wouldn't be able to make the statement conclusively.

>Since 2000, 10 people have been convicted of theft of government property
>for taking about 600 ginseng roots at Mammoth Cave. Fines were up to
>$1,000.

ej - The underlying implication is they these harvesters were selfish 
evildoers, and maybe they are, but do we know if they were practicing what 
they thought was stewardship (left part of the roots, replanted, broadcast 
seeds, other)?  I don't mean to make a big leap of faith her but the point 
in some of the cases I've examined more closely the situation is so much 
more complex/gray and without the larger context maybe we shouldn't be so 
quick to judge.  While some of the harvesters may be unscrupulous 
profiteers others might be unemployed mothers and fathers trying to get 
some food money.  A big fine might just push them to more desperate 
measures.  Knowing this larger context helps us come up with smarter, more 
sustainable solutions.

>In national and state forests -- but not parks -- diggers can harvest up to
>one pound of ginseng during the one-month season, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, if
>they have a $20 permit. Ginseng can be legally harvested on private land
>with the property owner's consent from Aug. 15 through Dec. 31.
>Some Kentuckians said more enforcement is needed for ginseng poaching on
>private land. Frances Williams, a farmer who lives on 230 acres about 20 
>miles from
>Mammoth Cave, said poachers repeatedly trespass on her property to take as
>much ginseng as they can find.  "Some day I'd like to dig it myself, but I 
>don't think there's any left,"
>Williams said. "People are used to not taking this kind of thing
>seriously."

ej - It's her property and she can do what she want within the laws of the 
country but it sounds to me like she isn't from around there if she doesn't 
dig ginseng.  In the past private property owners often allowed harvest 
traditions to take place on their lands, but more and more private property 
rights are being enforced.  To me this points to the need to better 
understand cultural traditions such as how gathering traditions took place 
across private ownership and whether or not we need to consider ways to 
protect them (beyond existing customary laws).  Some countries like Finland 
have created national laws to protect gathering traditions, perhaps we can 
draw insight from their experiences.

>Cash crop
>
>Kentucky leads the nation in the amount of wild American ginseng dug each
>year, and "ginsenging" -- or sangin', as harvesting is sometimes called --
>is a lucrative and little-regulated pastime. It has been dug in Appalachia
>since colonial days.

ej - Ginseng is actually regulated in different ways across different land 
management agencies.  How the regulations are enforced is a different 
story.  Ginseng was also dug by Native Americans before the arrival of 
colonists.

>More than 90 percent of the Kentucky harvest of the herb ends up in Asia,
>where many people believe it improves health and has medicinal powers,
>officials say.

ej - Could really use references on this one.  Also, the underlying tone 
here is that herbs are woowow medicine.  Ginseng has figured prominently in 
Chinese medicine for 1,000s of years, let's have some respect for other 
cultures.

>Legal harvesters collect about $10 million worth of ginseng a year in
>Kentucky, according to Chris Kring, who manages the ginseng program at the
>state Department of Agriculture. The reported value of ginseng dug in 
>Kentucky has remained steady since 2000, according to state figures. But 
>experts say those figures do not take into account illegally dug
>ginseng.
>
>"The trade in ginseng is similar to the drug trade," said Gary Kauffman, a
>U.S. Forest Service botanist in North Carolina who studies ginseng. "The
>vast majority of diggers don't have permits."

ej - I know you need a licence to buy ginseng and have to record details 
about sales, but do harvesters need to have a permit if they are digging on 
private land?  If not then perhaps the vast majority of harvesters don't 
need a permit.  Regardless, I don't think they should be compared to drug 
traders given that ginseng harvesting has a long, important, respectable, 
and legal place in American history and culture.

>Jumping the gun
>
>Park officials in Kentucky said digging before the start of the season is
>rampant.  David Taylor, a botanist for the Daniel Boone National Forest, said
>poachers, especially those who dig underdeveloped roots in the spring, pose
>a threat to the long-term existence of ginseng.  "If you have flowers but 
>no fruit, you can't get any plants from it," he said.

ej - Again, more links to poachers as the threat, what are other 
threats?  I'm a little confused on what he saying about the flowers and 
fruit.  If the roots are being dug then you shouldn't see flowers, if there 
are not flowers then you should see any fruit, right?

>Taylor said scientists would have a better sense of the threat if they knew
>how much ginseng is being grown in the woods from existing seeds, compared
>to that randomly dug by poachers and legal harvesters.

ej - Sounds like an incentive to build a monitoring relationship with 
harvesters.

>State regulations do not require diggers to reveal that information.

ej - The implication here is that state regulations should require diggers 
to disclose planting and digging areas.  While this could be an okay thing 
to do if a trusting, mutually beneficial relationship with harvesters was 
created, it could be disaster for harvester stewardship if it results in 
public disclosure of their patches.

>Taylor said Kentucky would benefit from stricter laws and beefed-up
>enforcement. Other states, such as North Carolina, have had a longstanding
>crackdown on ginseng poachers, he said.

ej - What other options have been explored?  I wonder if they have the same 
concerns about all the ginseng patches being laid to waste from coalmining, 
timber harvesting, roadbuilding, and development?

>"They've been aware of the problem for longer," Taylor said.  Protecting 
>buried treasure  Mammoth Cave enacted the first of its security measures 
>about three years ago, hoping to prevent ginseng from being pushed into 
>extinction there.  "Ginseng is greatly reduced in the wild already," said 
>Larry Johnson, a
>ranger at the 52,000-acre Mammoth Cave park.  The measures included 
>increased enforcement, installing motion-detection devices near ginseng 
>plants and dyeing the roots bright pink to identify
>them, if taken, as having been dug on federal land. "Usually we just catch 
>them in the act," Johnson said.
>Mann said he doubted park officials could adequately protect the nearly 
>700,000-acre Boone forest against poachers, even by using Mammoth Cave's 
>techniques.  "Very few people go out and get a permit, and we're concerned 
>with that," Mann said. "But we're up against human greed." Instead, forest 
>officials have begun cultivating ginseng seeds for replanting.  Park 
>officials have asked people with permits to plant only half the seeds they 
>encounter in the forest and bring the other half to the park's offices. 
>The seeds are sent to a Forest Service nursery for eventual replanting on 
>park property.

ej - Is the seed being gathered and replanted from the original local 
ecosystem the plant was adapted to?  What are the ecological implications 
of broadcasting non site-specific native seeds?

>So far, only one person has brought in seed, said Marie Walker, a park
>spokeswoman.
>
>Legal sales, harvesting
>
>Ginseng diggers by law must sell the herb to one of 90 dealers registered
>with the state.
>
>In 2003, 827 diggers in Pike County, which annually leads the state in
>ginseng harvests, sold 1,775 pounds of wild ginseng to dealers, a harvest
>with a market value of more than $700,000.
>
>Experienced diggers follow the same routine, botanist Kauffman said.
>
>They identify the ginseng by its bright red berries. With one hand, they
>scoop off the berries, and with the other whack the root out of the hole
>with a small shovel. They pull the root out of the ground and throw the
>seeds back in the ground to encourage future growth.
>
>Jay Dye harvests the herb on his 100 acres in Floyd County, a rite of fall
>and a good way to earn money to buy Christmas presents, he said.
>
>"Sometimes I'm so eager to get out there, I forget to eat breakfast," said
>Dye, a 57-year-old retired coal miner.
>
>Dye said his daily trips yield a total of about three pounds of the root
>each harvesting season, which he sells to a dealer at a market in
>Paintsville for about $1,000.
>
>Tony Ison, a Perry County ginseng dealer since 1980 who also sells other
>wild roots, including rattle weed and goldenseal, said he relies on the
>ability of diggers to identify mature roots.

ej - Nice to see positive involvement of harvesters.

>"The dealers really need to get the diggers not to dig small roots," Ison
>said. "The Asians do not want small ginseng."
>
>Private-property losses
>
>Hart County Sheriff Jeff Staples said he has received complaints about
>ginseng theft, but it is difficult to catch poachers.
>
>"Yes, we do have that problem, but so do a lot of rural counties," Staples
>said.
>
>Staples said his department recently laid off eight deputies, leaving him
>with only four officers to patrol 410 square miles.
>
>"If we got a call, by the time we got there, they'd be gone," he said.
>
>Pike County Sheriff Charles "Fuzzy" Keesee chuckled when asked about
>ginseng.
>
>"A lot of people do dig it out of season, but there's no way we can catch
>them," Keesee said. "They do it back in places where we couldn't even find
>them."
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