[MPWG] Poaching, was re: ginseng/hemlock

[Bob Beyfuss]

Hi all
I really don't think you can hide ginseng from poachers. It is like trying 
to hide the holiday presents from your teenage kids! I have thoughts on 
poaching ginseng that may be somewhat relevant to other medicinal plants.
Bob

Thoughts on Poaching Ginseng

I think it is time to make the distinction between poaching and grand 
larceny. In the South and Midwest where much rural land is owned by large 
utility companies and the Federal government, hunting, fishing and poaching 
ginseng on this land have become accepted practices among some local 
residents. When the victim of poaching is a large, perhaps unknowing and 
seemingly uncaring corporate entity it is difficult for me to become too 
upset by local people harvesting a resource that they may have planted 
themselves or at least have tended over many years, especially if they have 
stewarded that resource, protecting it from deer and other threats and are 
the main reason it still exists.  I have seen ginseng patches destined for 
development successfully transplanted elsewhere on public property 
unbeknownst to the property owners. In NY when I think of poaching, I think 
about shooting an extra deer or perhaps taking a deer out of season for 
food. In many cases it does appear to be a victimless crime. (unless you 
are a deer of course!)

When it comes to stealing someone's private property, almost literally from 
a back yard or adjacent to a house, then it is time to become outraged. 
There is no justification for outright thievery nor is there any excuse for 
ignoring such behavior by dealers who knowingly purchase that ginseng.  The 
NY State and most other state's ginseng regulations clearly state that wild 
ginseng may only be gathered on private property with permission of the 
property owners during the official harvest season. Diggers selling wild 
ginseng should be prepared to show proof of landowner permission when they 
sell their roots. If this means sharing some of the money from sale of the 
roots with the landowner, so be it. When one hunts and kills deer on 
someone's else's property with permission, it is traditional and proper to 
offer the landowner some of the bounty.

I strongly suspect that much of what is sold today as "wild" ginseng is in 
fact "wild simulated". This is ginseng that somebody planted years ago 
either on private or public land. In some cases the seed was gathered from 
wild plants but in many cases it was purchased from elsewhere. Generations 
of diggers have nurtured this resource and in many cases have prevented it 
from being extirpated in a given area. It is time for ginseng growers and 
diggers to get rid of their presumed cover of being anonymous. If you are 
anonymous or invisible how can anyone steal from you?  If you "secretly" 
grow ginseng on your property and someone steals it from you what recourse 
do you have? How can you even prove that you had something stolen? You may 
think you have a secure and well protected spot but in fact your "secret" 
garden may be well known among local thieves who are just waiting for it to 
become worth their effort to steal.

      So, what is a digger/grower to do? Here are a few important steps. 
First, assume that your private patch is not really private at all. Expect 
to be a target and act accordingly. Document every seed you plant and every 
rootlet you transplant. Save receipts from seeds purchased and all supplies 
used to grow your crop. Take many, many photos of your crop each and every 
year. Record everything you have growing and it's approximate value. This 
will help to justify a theft loss on your income taxes should one occur. 
Check with your insurance company to see if your ginseng crop is covered 
against theft loss. Let the local Cooperative Extension agricultural agent 
know you are a grower as well as your local Farm Service Agency Director. 
Show them your gardens so they will be able to corroborate your story 
should you get ripped off.  Put a fence around the garden and post it well. 
Nothing quite denotes ownership more then a fence even if it is only a 
three foot chicken wire enclosure.

If your garden is worth significant money, spend some money to protect it! 
Motion activated "Critter Gitter" alarms cost about $60. Fake video cameras 
cost about $10 each, real ones cost more but the technology exists today 
that allows monitoring a garden one half mile from your house while 
watching it on your TV monitor. Would you leave the keys to your Lexus in 
the ignition and leave it parked on the street in an unknown neighborhood 
when you went away on vacation?  Avoid the temptation to install "booby" 
traps. At best, anyone hurt by a "booby" trap, even a lowlife thief, will 
likely be able to successfully sue you for using it.  At worst you will 
maim or kill an innocent person.

Finally, be prepared to do whatever it takes to catch and prosecute the 
thief. I know a very successful grower in West Virginia who is well known 
locally as someone who will spend $1,000 if necessary to catch a thief who 
steals $100 worth of his ginseng. Consequently, no one steals his ginseng. 
If we can develop and support a significant ginseng industry we need to 
make ourselves well known to agency people, politicians and police.

At 06:47 PM 3/5/2006, Michael Schenk wrote:
>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
>
> >
>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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