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This may be of interest. Saguaro is pictured below but black cohosh and Appalachian and Ozarks medicinal plants are mentioned in first paragraph.</div>
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<span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS",sans-serif">By Lynne Warren</span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS",sans-serif">Dec. 1, 2019</span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS",sans-serif">in National Wildlife Federation</span></p>
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<strong><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:rgb(39,43,45); line-height:normal">IT CAN TAKE DECADES </span></strong><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:rgb(39,43,45); line-height:normal">for a saguaro
cactus to grow large enough to be worth stealing, but just minutes for a team of thieves to rip one from its desert soil. Few of us might associate the crime of poaching with something as undramatic as shallow holes in the ground. But that’s what poachers
are leaving behind from coast to coast—wherever lucrative markets turn native plants into profitable prey.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:11pt; line-height:normal"></span><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:rgb(39,43,45); line-height:normal">Every year, thousands of illegally trafficked plants are seized by officials in the United States, and
according to the </span><span style="font-size:12.5pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:#272B2D"><a href="https://unctad.org/en/pages/PressRelease.aspx?OriginalVersionID=340" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(173,124,29); font-size:11pt; line-height:normal">United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development</span></a></span><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:rgb(39,43,45); line-height:normal">, the number of plants stolen from the wild to be sold as collectibles, decorations or medicine
is growing worldwide. </span><span style="font-size:12.5pt; font-family:"Arial",sans-serif; color:#272B2D"><a href="https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Plants-and-Fungi/Cacti" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(173,124,29); font-size:11pt; line-height:normal">Cacti</span></a></span><span style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:rgb(39,43,45); line-height:normal"> are
a prime example: Globally, nearly a third of all cactus species are at risk of extinction—and almost half of those are threatened by black-market trade.</span><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size:11pt; line-height:normal"> </span></p>
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<span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS",sans-serif">Full story: </span><a href="https://www.nwf.org/Home/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2020/Dec-Jan/Conservation/Plant-Poaching" id="LPlnk945982">https://www.nwf.org/Home/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2020/Dec-Jan/Conservation/Plant-Poaching</a> <span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS",sans-serif"></span></p>
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<a target="_blank" id="LPUrlAnchor256810" href="https://www.nwf.org/Home/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2020/Dec-Jan/Conservation/Plant-Poaching" style="text-decoration:none">Crimes Against Nature - National Wildlife Federation</a></div>
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Breaking into the drug market . Inland from flytrap habitat, plant thieves train their sights on different quarry, exploiting valuable medicinal herbs growing in the mountain forests of Appalachia and in woodlands from the Great Lakes to the Ozarks. One such
plant, black cohosh, is a slow-growing perennial that azure butterfly mothers rely on to feed and shelter their young.</div>
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www.nwf.org</div>
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