[MPWG] Article about Medicinals (and other Non-timber forest products) in the Pacific Northwest

[Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov]

This is an interesting article depicting the plight faced by some folks 
who harvest non-timber forest products in the Pacific Northwest.  See the 
full story at: 
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003042206_salal06m.html

Note: 
>Salal is the common name for Gaultheria species, which is harvested for 
the floral trade and also has medicinal applications.
>Beargrass is the common name for species belonging to the genus Nolina . 
Many species in this genus, which have been traditionally used by Native 
American as food, medicine and in basketry, continue to be harvested for 
those purposes as well as for the floral industry.

A war in the woods
By Craig Welch
Seattle Times staff reporter

MATLOCK, Mason County 
     Son Chau and his wife were all alone and deep in the woods when a man 
shoved a pistol into their truck and said he was taking it all: 20,000 
stems of a shrub called salal. 
     Chau had spent the day as he spends most, snipping woody stems with 
shiny oval leaves from the forest. Any other day, he would have driven the 
plants to Shelton to be shipped to vast open-air flower markets in the 
Netherlands.
     But that afternoon four years ago, Chau watched helplessly as bandits 
loaded his day's labor into a minivan and drove off, making him another 
casualty in what has become a war in the woods.
     Specialty products harvested from Northwest forests — including moss, 
salal and slender stalks called beargrass — once were a low-class sideshow 
to logging, picked by rural folks in need of extra bucks. It since has 
swelled to a mammoth industry that brings in at least a quarter-billion 
dollars a year — nearly one-fourth the size of the apple industry.

Full story at: 
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003042206_salal06m.html
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