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Letter to someone who collected plants from the wild, is this to harsh?

  • #21
if you "spank" him too hard, he will just disappear imho

the kid is clueless, mentor him peat.... you would be a great influence,

(the teacher in me is talking LOL)
I agree!
 
  • #22
Problem is Peat tried educated him and you saw the results. Now Peat needs to get his attention and use a clue by four to start to get him to start listening.
 
  • #24
ummm ive missed part of it then

nevermind :)
 
  • #25
Problem is Peat tried educated him and you saw the results. Now Peat needs to get his attention and use a clue by four to start to get him to start listening.

Peat only asked him how many plants he took.
 
  • #26
  • #27
That letter isn't as harsh as I would have been. I'd let him know how threatened some of these plants are in the wild, and that he's now considered a poacher.
 
  • #28
Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to approach this. I think I'll send him a more tactful letter first, then if he is resistant, I'll send him the second one.

Cleared up Chib, that was a reply to a letter asking how many plants he took.
 
  • #29
I would have just shown up at his front door one day. That usually gets the message across quickly.
 
  • #30
I actually have his addresse....
 
  • #31
Now the only choice you have to make is if you want this to be a positive experience for him, or a really, really bad one that might end with years of therapy.
 
  • #32
I honestly really like the original letter. I totally agree with Veronis's edits, but other than that, I wouldn't sweeten it or take much of anything out. It's not too harsh at all, and it's definitely not threatening him. He needs to realize the gravity of what he's done (which he clearly doesn't based on his response to your first inquiry). What he did was wrong on a few different levels, and he deserves at the very least to be reminded, and even slightly reprimanded based on what he did, whether it was out of intent or in his case pure obliviousness (I presume). If you don't drill into him that he acted wrongly, he could take it as something "wrong but not THAT big of a problem," which is certainly not the mindset he should have.
 
  • #33
Hasn't anyone else there pointed things out to him?
Indeed it seems he needs some advice,
but as mentioned, if he is determined to be the way he has been, it may do no good.
There is already a lot of poaching going on, and the worst offenders are the ones who sell or trade their acquisitions to others, as the plants are nothing more than a source of money or other things of value to them.

If nothing else, remind him that had some other person gotten there & chosen to do what he did,
there would have been no plants for him to see & enjoy! Let him know that he has perhaps ruined it for the next person & that the remaining plants may encounter a similar fate, if others like him choose their own selfishness over allowing the plants to grow where they are. Also that the plants are likely in a better place in their natural habitat than trapped in some kids bedroom terrarium.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do.
We all have our own way of dealing with this sort of thing.
I am not sure there is one "right" course of action in response to the situation. (Part of the freedoms we do have left.)
As I said earlier however, you are best to do something that will get the best results for the environment/plants, if possible,
and not for personal release of emotion.
Again, good luck.
 
  • #34
Here is what I sent him:

Hopefully it will not scare him away from the hobby. I'll get a modified version of my letter posted on a couple of other forums, hopefully in order to discourage poaching in the future.

Glad you got to see them in the wild!

I've been wondering how to approach this for a while, and I figure this is the best way.

I know you are new to the hobby, so you may not be aware. But most CP growers consider taking plants from the wild Taboo.

Now, if you have permission to collect, by all means, collect responsibly. Bonfield took his plants from the property of a friend. But, collecting from a park like Mer Bleu is unethical, not to mention illegal.

Frame it this way, if you had gone to the bog after someone had taken plants from the location, you would not have had the opportunity to see those plants in the wild. Same for anyone who goes after you. I visit Mer Bleu quite often, and I know the Drosera populations quite well. Five plants is quite a substantial chunk of the visible population.

You could not be expected to know about this rule, so I just ask that you try as hard as you can to keep the plants you collected alive, and give them away to whoever wants them. Share them with the community. And don't encourage others to take plants from the wild.

And please, never take plants from the wild again.

Thanks,

Gabriel
 
  • #35
Great!

Definitely not too scary, but totally shows him whats wrong about taking the plants, and sharing them with the community in the future will be a way to not feel to guilty.

Thanks for telling him, I think we all need to team up whenever something like this happens.

Will
 
  • #36
He just posted this on the page where he offered the seeds:

My intentions were definitely not to harm but to make this species proliferate by sharing with others.
But you're right - that was irresponsible and I should have known better. Someone else has pointed it out to me as well…
I thought taking a few wouldn't hurt but I guess there's a reason why that bog is protected. Will keep that in mind going forward...


Obviously the message of me, and the other person who went at him, got through to him!
 
  • #38
I got some help from a "masked vigilante"...
 
  • #39
Very nice writeup to you and the "masked vigilante". Thank you for your passion and care for these plants.
 
  • #40
Glad things worked for the better.
Well presented Gabriel.
 
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