[PCA] QUESTION: Destruction of Seeds (fwd)

[Patricia_Ford at fws.gov]

Regarding the inquiry about seeds of Pritchardia remota that were
confiscated by USDA officials. I forward the e-mail to USDA-APHIS, below is
their explanation of the event.  Additionally, it is the USDA not the Fish
and Wildlife Service that inspects plants and plant material at U.S. ports.
The FWS does not destroy seized plants.

Dear Ms. Coulombe,

We researched your concerns about the Pritchardia palm seeds and here is
what we have determined.  The seeds in question have not been destroyed.
The Inspection  Officer inadvertently stated on the Mail Interception form
that they were "removed and destroyed", when in reality they were held and
set aside(safeguarded)at the Plant Inspection Station, as is our standard
practice with endangered species.  They are currently there awaiting
assignment to an approved Plant Rescue Center (PRC)(e.g., botanic garden).
Some other non-regulated species of seed (i.e., CITES or ESA) were shipped
along with the two ESA-regulated Pritchardias, and those were released to
the importer.

There was no certification that the seed was from an artificially
propagated source, no statement on the bags, labels, or the phytosanitary
certificate regarding the specific origin.  There was no ESA permit from
the US FWS presented that the importer was obligated to have prior to
importation.  Steps are now being taken to have them assigned to a PRC as
quickly as possible.

Sincerely,

T. Mark Thurmond
Botanist (Headquarters CITES Specialist)
USDA-APHIS-PPQ
4700 River Road
Plant Safeguarding & Pest Identification
Riverdale, MD 20737-1236






                                                                                                                          
                      Plant Conservation                                                                                  
                      <plant at plantconservation.org>                  To:      <native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org> 
                      Sent by:                                       cc:                                                  
                      native-plants-bounces at lists.plantconse         Subject: [PCA] QUESTION: Destruction of Seeds (fwd)  
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                      03/22/2005 05:14 PM                                                                                 
                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                          




I'm curious if anyone has had similar experiences or can outline the
policy and/or reasoning concerning the topic in this e-mail from Lauri.

Olivia
SER/PCA
http://www.nps.gov/plants/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 20:25:49 +0100
From: Lauri Coulombe <lauri at coulombe.info>
To: plant at plantconservation.org
Subject: destruction of highly endangered plant seeds

I was wondering if you could help me figure out how to take action on a
specific issue. The palm tree species Pritchardia remota, native to Hawaii,
is virtually extinct in the wild and it only lives because people propagate
it. While it is prohibited to take the plants out of Hawaii, it is not
illegal to take the seeds out as long as they are acknowledged to be from
cultivated origin (this is according to the USDA website).  Recently a
friend in Europe shipped some of these seeds to California (he has also
supplied seeds to the Millennium Seed Bank at the Royal Botanic Garden at
Kew). He was unaware of the necessity of marking the label to indicate they
were from cultivation, and so the USDA confiscated the seeds and, instead
of
sending them back indicating they must be labeled or doing something else
productive with them, they DESTROYED them! How is this different from
killing an endangered plant or animal? If someone was trying to move a
Panda
and it didn't have the required paperwork they wouldn't put the Panda to
sleep! This is absolutely absurd; if the USDA was really concerned about
protecting this plant they would not have incinerated these seeds.  I
really
want to take some action on this, particularly as I've heard of other such
practices exercised by the USDA as well as the Fish and Wildlife Service.
If the very government agencies that are supposed to be protecting our
wildlife are destroying it, what hope do we have?
Thank you for your time.
Lauri D. Coulombe


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