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<font size=3>At 6/7/2005, you (Alan Trachtenberg) wrote:<br>
</font><blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080"> <br>
I find it useful to know what the general public is reading/watching
about medicinal plants. From a policy point of view, it’s almost as
important as the science. If you feel that the article was
propaganda, you may state so, as you did. It would be helpful the
hear more from you about what interests you believe are doing the
propagandizing and what the major misstatements are. For myself,
I’d like to see things like this continue to be posted. The people
on this list all have a knowledge base that they can use to evaluate
these pieces, with or without the assistance of your
critiques.</font></blockquote><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>
<br>
Good point, I suppose it is important to know what the public is
reading. I also agree that it would be good to provide some
critique, perhaps critique accompanying the original post would be good
criteria for posting. Below are some initial critiques, comments,
and thoughts, preceded by my initials. ej:<br><br>
</font><blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">
<a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050606/NEWS0104/506060393" eudora="autourl">
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050606/NEWS0104/506060393</a>
<br>
Poachers endanger Kentucky's ginseng<br>
Dye, tracking used to protect root<br>
By Alan Maimon<br>
amaimon@courier-journal.com<br>
The Courier-Journal<br>
SPEWING CAMP BRANCH, Ky. -- With the arrival of spring, Mammoth Cave<br>
National Park rangers say they are bracing for thousands of visitors
--<br>
some with larceny on their minds.</blockquote><br>
ej - It would be nice to have some historical context. For example,
what is the historical use patterns in what is now the park? Are
their old-timers such as with the Olympic National Park or Great Smokies
that traditionally gathered plants and are engaged in acts of everyday
resistance? If there was a long history of human interaction with
ginseng population in the area what are the consequences for the
population of stymieing that interaction? History doesn't make
contemporary theft okay, but it may offer insights into why people are
behaving the way they are. Are all incidents labeled theft actually
theft if they are linked to historical gathering traditions that are
supposed to be legally protected by customary claim laws? Are there
any off-reservation Native American gathering (legal) rights in the area
that aren't being considered by management (a widespread problem across
the U.S.)<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Their bounty: ginseng, a root
that can sell for as much as $400 a pound.<br><br>
But harvesting ginseng is illegal at Mammoth Cave, and some plants
there<br>
have been dyed pink and wired with motion detectors or tracking
devices<br>
that send out a radio locator signal.</blockquote><br>
ej - What studies have been done looking at the environmental impacts of
such technological solutions to the health of the ginseng
population? What alternatives have been explored such as inviting
harvesters to help monitor patches against "theft." Such
a strategy might be enticing to harvesters in exchange for the right to
camp and harvest in their patches.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Rangers say these measures are
necessary because overzealous poaching has<br>
threatened to all but eliminate the root at Mammoth
Cave.</blockquote><br>
ej - What proof? I don't deny any plant can be vulnerable to
overharvest but as stated with reference to rigorous studies over time it
could just be the words of a frustrated ranger. Personnel across
various land managements have repeatedly made such claims in interviews
but without monitoring to back it up. It's not that their
observations over time don't count for something but unless done
systematically their claims shouldn't be the base for management
decisions. Like harvesters observations, they should be taken
seriously as concerns to follow-up on with scientific studies. A
great way to accomplish that is through participatory monitoring
processes involving management, science, harvesters, and other
stakeholders. The Medicinal Plant Working Group has
multistakeholder studies underway, though to my knowledge they are not
working with harvesters.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">The park's efforts reflect
growth of ginseng theft in Kentucky and across<br>
the country in parks, forests and even on private property. At stake
in<br>
some places is the very survival of the root, which is used as a
stimulant.</blockquote><br>
ej - Some references here would be great but you typically don't get that
sort of thing in a newspaper article and that is why I think it is risky
to repost them. Many policy and management decisions seem to be
being made based such accounts. For example, a person (call him
Deep Throat if you want, though if you ask I'll reveal the source) in OMB
told me that one of the major factors in creating the federal botanical
harvesting law known as Section 339 was because of the accounts of theft
he kept reading about in newspapers. Incidentally, he apparently
worked closely with a FS person (also have that name) to craft the law
and insert it on the 2000 Appropriations as a rider. What could
have been a transparent process to craft a really great and much needed
law instead came across as a backhanded effort to further hamper
commercial harvesting.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">"Poaching has led to
overharvesting, and that makes us concerned about the<br>
sustainability of ginseng," said Rex Mann, a supervisor at the
Daniel Boone<br>
National Forest. "There is definitely a dwindling
supply."</blockquote><br>
ej - Where is the proof linking poaching and overharvesting?
Personally I believe the statement is probably true in the case of
ginseng in a Kentucky Park but it's stated so matter-of-fact without
offering alternative possibilities. For example, a recent article
in Science by McGraw and Furedi indicates that expanding deer populations
are having an impact on ginseng populations in central Appalachia.
In many interviews with harvesters they talked about the same thing as
well as exploding populations of wild turkey. What similar forces
might be work in the park? Acid Rain? Pollution from coal
mining? Maybe nothing but if their situation is like most other
places they aren't even investigating it and therefore wouldn't be able
to make the statement conclusively.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Since 2000, 10 people have been
convicted of theft of government property<br>
for taking about 600 ginseng roots at Mammoth Cave. Fines were up to<br>
$1,000.</blockquote><br>
ej - The underlying implication is they these harvesters were selfish
evildoers, and maybe they are, but do we know if they were practicing
what they thought was stewardship (left part of the roots, replanted,
broadcast seeds, other)? I don't mean to make a big leap of faith
her but the point in some of the cases I've examined more closely the
situation is so much more complex/gray and without the larger context
maybe we shouldn't be so quick to judge. While some of the
harvesters may be unscrupulous profiteers others might be unemployed
mothers and fathers trying to get some food money. A big fine might
just push them to more desperate measures. Knowing this larger
context helps us come up with smarter, more sustainable
solutions.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">In national and state forests --
but not parks -- diggers can harvest up to<br>
one pound of ginseng during the one-month season, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15,
if<br>
they have a $20 permit. Ginseng can be legally harvested on private
land<br>
with the property owner's consent from Aug. 15 through Dec. 31.<br>
Some Kentuckians said more enforcement is needed for ginseng poaching
on<br>
private land. Frances Williams, a farmer who lives on 230 acres about 20
miles from<br>
Mammoth Cave, said poachers repeatedly trespass on her property to take
as<br>
much ginseng as they can find. "Some day I'd like to dig it
myself, but I don't think there's any left,"<br>
Williams said. "People are used to not taking this kind of
thing<br>
seriously."</blockquote><br>
ej - It's her property and she can do what she want within the laws of
the country but it sounds to me like she isn't from around there if she
doesn't dig ginseng. In the past private property owners often
allowed harvest traditions to take place on their lands, but more and
more private property rights are being enforced. To me this points
to the need to better understand cultural traditions such as how
gathering traditions took place across private ownership and whether or
not we need to consider ways to protect them (beyond existing customary
laws). Some countries like Finland have created national laws to
protect gathering traditions, perhaps we can draw insight from their
experiences.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Cash crop<br><br>
Kentucky leads the nation in the amount of wild American ginseng dug
each<br>
year, and "ginsenging" -- or sangin', as harvesting is
sometimes called --<br>
is a lucrative and little-regulated pastime. It has been dug in
Appalachia<br>
since colonial days.</blockquote><br>
ej - Ginseng is actually regulated in different ways across different
land management agencies. How the regulations are enforced is a
different story. Ginseng was also dug by Native Americans before
the arrival of colonists.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">More than 90 percent of the
Kentucky harvest of the herb ends up in Asia,<br>
where many people believe it improves health and has medicinal
powers,<br>
officials say.</blockquote><br>
ej - Could really use references on this one. Also, the underlying
tone here is that herbs are woowow medicine. Ginseng has figured
prominently in Chinese medicine for 1,000s of years, let's have some
respect for other cultures.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Legal harvesters collect about
$10 million worth of ginseng a year in<br>
Kentucky, according to Chris Kring, who manages the ginseng program at
the<br>
state Department of Agriculture. The reported value of ginseng dug in
Kentucky has remained steady since 2000, according to state figures. But
experts say those figures do not take into account illegally dug<br>
ginseng.<br><br>
"The trade in ginseng is similar to the drug trade," said Gary
Kauffman, a<br>
U.S. Forest Service botanist in North Carolina who studies ginseng.
"The<br>
vast majority of diggers don't have permits."</blockquote><br>
ej - I know you need a licence to buy ginseng and have to record details
about sales, but do harvesters need to have a permit if they are digging
on private land? If not then perhaps the vast majority of
harvesters don't need a permit. Regardless, I don't think they
should be compared to drug traders given that ginseng harvesting has a
long, important, respectable, and legal place in American history and
culture.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Jumping the gun<br><br>
Park officials in Kentucky said digging before the start of the season
is<br>
rampant. David Taylor, a botanist for the Daniel Boone National
Forest, said<br>
poachers, especially those who dig underdeveloped roots in the spring,
pose<br>
a threat to the long-term existence of ginseng. "If you have
flowers but no fruit, you can't get any plants from it," he
said.</blockquote><br>
ej - Again, more links to poachers as the threat, what are other
threats? I'm a little confused on what he saying about the flowers
and fruit. If the roots are being dug then you shouldn't see
flowers, if there are not flowers then you should see any fruit,
right?<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Taylor said scientists would
have a better sense of the threat if they knew<br>
how much ginseng is being grown in the woods from existing seeds,
compared<br>
to that randomly dug by poachers and legal harvesters.</blockquote><br>
ej - Sounds like an incentive to build a monitoring relationship with
harvesters.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">State regulations do not require
diggers to reveal that information.</blockquote><br>
ej - The implication here is that state regulations should require
diggers to disclose planting and digging areas. While this could be
an okay thing to do if a trusting, mutually beneficial relationship with
harvesters was created, it could be disaster for harvester stewardship if
it results in public disclosure of their patches.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Taylor said Kentucky would
benefit from stricter laws and beefed-up<br>
enforcement. Other states, such as North Carolina, have had a
longstanding<br>
crackdown on ginseng poachers, he said.</blockquote><br>
ej - What other options have been explored? I wonder if they have
the same concerns about all the ginseng patches being laid to waste from
coalmining, timber harvesting, roadbuilding, and development?<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">"They've been aware of the
problem for longer," Taylor said. Protecting buried
treasure Mammoth Cave enacted the first of its security measures
about three years ago, hoping to prevent ginseng from being pushed into
extinction there. "Ginseng is greatly reduced in the wild
already," said Larry Johnson, a<br>
ranger at the 52,000-acre Mammoth Cave park. The measures included
increased enforcement, installing motion-detection devices near ginseng
plants and dyeing the roots bright pink to identify<br>
them, if taken, as having been dug on federal land. "Usually we just
catch them in the act," Johnson said.<br>
Mann said he doubted park officials could adequately protect the nearly
700,000-acre Boone forest against poachers, even by using Mammoth Cave's
techniques. "Very few people go out and get a permit, and
we're concerned with that," Mann said. "But we're up against
human greed." Instead, forest officials have begun cultivating
ginseng seeds for replanting. Park officials have asked people with
permits to plant only half the seeds they encounter in the forest and
bring the other half to the park's offices. The seeds are sent to a
Forest Service nursery for eventual replanting on park
property.</blockquote><br>
ej - Is the seed being gathered and replanted from the original local
ecosystem the plant was adapted to? What are the ecological
implications of broadcasting non site-specific native seeds?<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">So far, only one person has
brought in seed, said Marie Walker, a park<br>
spokeswoman.<br><br>
Legal sales, harvesting<br><br>
Ginseng diggers by law must sell the herb to one of 90 dealers
registered<br>
with the state.<br>
<br>
In 2003, 827 diggers in Pike County, which annually leads the state
in<br>
ginseng harvests, sold 1,775 pounds of wild ginseng to dealers, a
harvest<br>
with a market value of more than $700,000.<br><br>
Experienced diggers follow the same routine, botanist Kauffman
said.<br><br>
They identify the ginseng by its bright red berries. With one hand,
they<br>
scoop off the berries, and with the other whack the root out of the
hole<br>
with a small shovel. They pull the root out of the ground and throw
the<br>
seeds back in the ground to encourage future growth.<br><br>
Jay Dye harvests the herb on his 100 acres in Floyd County, a rite of
fall<br>
and a good way to earn money to buy Christmas presents, he said.<br><br>
"Sometimes I'm so eager to get out there, I forget to eat
breakfast," said<br>
Dye, a 57-year-old retired coal miner.<br><br>
Dye said his daily trips yield a total of about three pounds of the
root<br>
each harvesting season, which he sells to a dealer at a market in<br>
Paintsville for about $1,000.<br><br>
Tony Ison, a Perry County ginseng dealer since 1980 who also sells
other<br>
wild roots, including rattle weed and goldenseal, said he relies on
the<br>
ability of diggers to identify mature roots.</blockquote><br>
ej - Nice to see positive involvement of harvesters.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">"The dealers really need to
get the diggers not to dig small roots," Ison<br>
said. "The Asians do not want small ginseng."<br><br>
Private-property losses<br><br>
Hart County Sheriff Jeff Staples said he has received complaints
about<br>
ginseng theft, but it is difficult to catch poachers.<br><br>
"Yes, we do have that problem, but so do a lot of rural
counties," Staples<br>
said.<br><br>
Staples said his department recently laid off eight deputies, leaving
him<br>
with only four officers to patrol 410 square miles.<br><br>
"If we got a call, by the time we got there, they'd be gone,"
he said.<br><br>
Pike County Sheriff Charles "Fuzzy" Keesee chuckled when asked
about<br>
ginseng.<br><br>
"A lot of people do dig it out of season, but there's no way we can
catch<br>
them," Keesee said. "They do it back in places where we
couldn't even find<br>
them."</blockquote></body>
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