[MPWG] ARTICLE: Poachers Looting National Parks of Treasures

[Bob Beyfuss]

I read the article and here is the second paragraph.

"Looking over a vast hollow filled with wildflowers and vibrant grasses 
last month, Wissinger tried in vain to spot the small ginseng plants that 
used to grow there in profusion but are now being stolen to make tea, 
health supplements and aphrodisiacs"

If Wissinger is looking for ginseng from a distance growing among "vibrant 
grasses" he does not know what he is looking for. Ginseng does not grow 
among grasses and never did. American ginseng is an easily grown, renewable 
resource that can quickly be restored in suitable habitats, provided these 
habitats are not paved over or developed into concession stands or 
destroyed in some other man made fashion. Resource managers should spend 
less time whining over the disappearance of easily grown plants like 
ginseng and more time replanting them. If half the time and resources spent 
searching for ginseng poachers were spent on replanting ginseng it could 
easily become abundant. Private stewardship and wild simulated systems of 
growing ginseng on private property annually provides 70,000 pounds or more 
of dried roots each year for export to China. Recent research by Dr James 
McGraw at West Virginia University, a highly respected Population 
biologist,  indicates that by carefully replanting ginseng berries when 
they are ripe, reproductive capacity can be increased by as much as 30 
fold. This is likely the main reason why we still have so many small 
populations thriving.  Most people who harvest ginseng are not evil 
poachers. They are stewards of a renewable natural resource that has been 
used by humans for hundreds of years. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has 
imposed even stricter harvest regulations on ginseng that only serve to 
discourage the people who have stewarded the plants for generations. They 
cite poaching on public lands as a reason for their concern yet the 
regulations will have no effect on poaching whatsoever. A few years ago I 
had a conversation with a biologist studying ginseng in a National Park. 
The biologist has expended close to 1,000 hours studying a population of 50 
plants that eventually got poached, much to her dismay and anger. I could 
not help but think of just how much ginseng I could have planted in 1,000 
hours.


At 12:29 PM 10/24/2005, Olivia Kwong wrote:
>For the full article:
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/23/AR2005102300796.html
>
>By Juliet Eilperin
>Washington Post Staff Writer
>Monday, October 24, 2005; Page A08
>
>SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. -- A self-described "old-timer," Skip
>Wissinger has spent 32 years traversing the park's 300 square miles and
>identifying its natural treasures. But now many of the park's most prized
>resources -- its American ginseng plants, black bears and unusual
>butterflies -- are disappearing.
>
>
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