Post by Woody Williams on Jul 29, 2005 15:08:15 GMT -5
Mammoth Cave ready for ginseng poachers
SPEWING CAMP BRANCH, Ky. (AP) -- Rangers at Mammoth Cave National Park say they're ready for poachers looking to steal valuable ginseng, which can sell for as much as $400 a pound.
Harvesting the medicinal root is illegal at Mammoth Cave. Since 2000, 10 people have been convicted of theft of government property for taking about 600 ginseng roots at Mammoth Cave. Fines were up to $1,000.
In national and state forests -- but not parks -- diggers can harvest up to one pound of ginseng during the one-month season, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, if they have a $20 permit.
At Mammoth Cave, some plants have been dyed pink and wired with motion detectors or tracking devices that send out a radio locator signal.
Frances Williams, a farmer who lives on 230 acres about 20 miles from Mammoth Cave, said poachers repeatedly trespass on her property to take as much ginseng as they can find.
"Some day I'd like to dig it myself, but I don't think there's any left," Williams said. "People are used to not taking this kind of thing seriously."
Kentucky leads the nation in the amount of wild American ginseng dug each year. It has been dug in Appalachia since colonial days.
More than 90 percent of the Kentucky harvest of the herb ends up in Asia, where many people believe it improves health and has medicinal powers. Legal harvesters collect about $10 million worth of ginseng a year in Kentucky, according to Chris Kring, who manages the ginseng program at the 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 ginseng.
Park officials in Kentucky said digging before the start of the season is rampant.
David Taylor, a botanist for the Daniel Boone National Forest, said poachers, especially those who dig underdeveloped roots in the spring, pose a threat to the long-term existence of ginseng.
Taylor said Kentucky would benefit from stricter laws and beefed-up enforcement. Other states, such as North Carolina, have had a long-standing crackdown on ginseng poachers, he said.
"They've been aware of the problem for longer," Taylor said.
Mammoth Cave enacted the first of its security measures about three years ago, hoping to prevent ginseng from being pushed into extinction there.
But Rex Mann, a supervisor at the Daniel Boone National Forest, 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. So far, only one person has brought in seed, said Marie Walker, a park spokeswoman.
Legal sales, harvesting Ginseng diggers by law must sell the herb to one of 90 dealers registered with the state. In 2003, 827 diggers in Pike County, which annually leads the state in ginseng harvests, sold 1,775 pounds of wild ginseng to dealers, a harvest with a market value of more than $700,000.
SPEWING CAMP BRANCH, Ky. (AP) -- Rangers at Mammoth Cave National Park say they're ready for poachers looking to steal valuable ginseng, which can sell for as much as $400 a pound.
Harvesting the medicinal root is illegal at Mammoth Cave. Since 2000, 10 people have been convicted of theft of government property for taking about 600 ginseng roots at Mammoth Cave. Fines were up to $1,000.
In national and state forests -- but not parks -- diggers can harvest up to one pound of ginseng during the one-month season, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, if they have a $20 permit.
At Mammoth Cave, some plants have been dyed pink and wired with motion detectors or tracking devices that send out a radio locator signal.
Frances Williams, a farmer who lives on 230 acres about 20 miles from Mammoth Cave, said poachers repeatedly trespass on her property to take as much ginseng as they can find.
"Some day I'd like to dig it myself, but I don't think there's any left," Williams said. "People are used to not taking this kind of thing seriously."
Kentucky leads the nation in the amount of wild American ginseng dug each year. It has been dug in Appalachia since colonial days.
More than 90 percent of the Kentucky harvest of the herb ends up in Asia, where many people believe it improves health and has medicinal powers. Legal harvesters collect about $10 million worth of ginseng a year in Kentucky, according to Chris Kring, who manages the ginseng program at the 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 ginseng.
Park officials in Kentucky said digging before the start of the season is rampant.
David Taylor, a botanist for the Daniel Boone National Forest, said poachers, especially those who dig underdeveloped roots in the spring, pose a threat to the long-term existence of ginseng.
Taylor said Kentucky would benefit from stricter laws and beefed-up enforcement. Other states, such as North Carolina, have had a long-standing crackdown on ginseng poachers, he said.
"They've been aware of the problem for longer," Taylor said.
Mammoth Cave enacted the first of its security measures about three years ago, hoping to prevent ginseng from being pushed into extinction there.
But Rex Mann, a supervisor at the Daniel Boone National Forest, 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. So far, only one person has brought in seed, said Marie Walker, a park spokeswoman.
Legal sales, harvesting Ginseng diggers by law must sell the herb to one of 90 dealers registered with the state. In 2003, 827 diggers in Pike County, which annually leads the state in ginseng harvests, sold 1,775 pounds of wild ginseng to dealers, a harvest with a market value of more than $700,000.
, They were doing just fine earlier. They were only 30-40 yards from my house so I do not think anyone got them.
