[MPWG] Plant Rescue/Salvage across the U.S.

[Eric T Jones]

Greater salvage opportunities/requirements would be terrific and 
would be happy to sign on to a proposal of some kind allowing 
salvage.  Having looked over a variety of federal planning documents 
over the years it's clear that most of the time basic inventories of 
the plants aren't even done, not to mention virtually zero research 
on cultural impacts to contemporary human livelihoods.   Of course 
such a management approach is technically illegal, but nobody calls 
them out on it so there really isn't any pressure to change.  Quite a 
few Forest Service managers have stated to me that it will take a 
lawsuit before they change.  Their reasoning is that a lawsuit would 
likely trigger greater allocation of resources to the local offices 
by regional and national offices.

At 5/26/2007, mpwg-request at lists.plantconservation.org wrote:
>Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 17:09:00 -0400
>From: Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov
>Subject: [MPWG] Plant Rescue/Salvage across the U.S.
>To: native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org,
>
>Forwarding this message from a lastserve member.  I am aware of two states
>that have salvage laws in place that seem to be implemented well - Arizona
>and Minnesota.  I am not sure about other states and am curious to know
>what other states do.
>
>I would also like to acknowledge I realize there are several sides to the
>salvage issue.  Some people think salvage is a great idea.  For instance,
>on MPWG listserve member wrote:
>
>I personally have been involved in many 'rescue' projects and after
>addressing liability issues, the doors open for the rescue to happen.
>Unfortunately I have also seen endangered plants listed on CITES
>destroyed because they would not grant us permission to rescue them. And
>if we had dug them we would be breaking the law. Not quite sure how to
>bridge this gap, but some how "progress" must be qualified at what
>expense.
>
>I would like to see all State and Federal Highway projects mandated to
>allow 'rescue' of flora & fauna with parameters. The initial planning is
>usually done years in advance and once the surveys are complete and the
>boundaries are visibiy marked to stay within.
>
>Thank you for reading my comments and hope it sheds some light and
>speaks for those who cannot talk, the plants!
>
>And others are concerned about these down-sides:
>
>1. Salvage is a cop out - we need to be saving the habitat.
>2. Salvage operations may be misused by unscrupulous people who collect
>threatened species that really aren't in danger of being destroyed.
>
>
>What do YOU think?
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