[MPWG] Poaching, was re: ginseng/hemlock

[Michael Schenk]

Jennifer,

I'll probably plant some hemlock, even apart from herb cover planning, just because there isn't any hemlock nearby that I've seen, so it might be spared from the woolly adelgid, which is decimating hemlocks at a higher elevation nearby.  I'd like to have some scattered survivors to repopulate hemlocks if the adelgids get defeated eventually.  Meanwhile, I'll probably throw some black cohosh, bloodroot, ginseng, and goldenseal under them and near them, and see what survives.

Another question that's related to why I'm looking into planting ginseng under conifers is to discourage poaching.  This might be off-topic for MPWG, so I'll be glad to drop it if it is.  I've had some mature plants go missing, and I'm not sure whether to animals or to people, but I have had a number of neighbors bring up the subject of ginseng with me.  I usually say we're at too low an elevation for it to grow naturally, and leave it there, but I see the poaching problem looming large in the future. I'd rather switch to other crops than have to take a lot of anti-poaching measures; no one there seems to pay attention to BC, bloodroot, or goldenseal.  If I can confuse and mislead poachers by growing under mixed pines, I'll try that.  

One approach I tried this year was to clip off the tops  when the digging season opened.  I put the berries in the ground on the spot.  The leaves make a good ginseng tea for my own use.  I can't tell if that helped or not, and I'm waiting to see if it damaged that plot.

I'd like to hear other ideas about poaching.

List, sorry about the uncorrected title in my last post.

Cheers,
Mike

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Message: 3
Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2006 18:09:36 EST
From: Cafesombra at aol.com
Subject: Re: [MPWG] ginseng / hemlock
To: MPWG at lists.plantconservation.org
Message-ID: <278.5d5b912.313cc9b0 at aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

You're right about hemlock being a bad idea.  The root system is broad  and 
shallow right on the surface panning out from the trunk.  Nothing  much grows 
under the hemlocks, coptis maybe, partridge berry, black trumpet  shrooms, 
indian pipes.  That's about it.  That's under a giant, not a  sapling.  Nothing 
under the saplings.
That hemlocks are under attack is of course a good reason to try stewarding  
them on your land.  Here in Central Pa at least where I am we still have a  
great deal of giant grandmother/father hemlocks, let's hope it stays that  way,
cheers, Jennifer 
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