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Ozzy

SirKristoff is a poopiehead
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I just got here last night and today I found this news story.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld....427.htm

Posted on Sat, Jun. 11, 2005
CAROLINAS ENVIRONMENT


R E L A T E D C O N T E N T


The brilliant white flowers of the Venus' flytrap make the tiny plants easy to find during the late spring, when most poaching of the popular plant occurs. Authorities discovered signs that a number of flytraps had been taken recently from the Nature Conservancy Green Swamp in Brunswick County, N.C. CHARLES SLATE/The Sun News




CAROLINAS ENVIRONMENT


Poachers snare rare Venus' flytraps

Removal of carnivorous plants increases threat to delicate species

By Brock Vergakis

The Sun News


One of the world's most unique and rare plants is disappearing from Brunswick County, N.C.

This time, it's not rapid growth and development threatening the Venus' flytrap.

It's thieves.

Poachers, to be exact.

Hundreds of Venus' flytraps were taken from the nature preserve in the Green Swamp this past week, said Dan Bell, project director for the Nature Conservancy.

The only place in the world the carnivorous plant grows naturally is in coastal bogs in the Carolinas within about 100 miles of Wilmington, N.C.

The plant once grew along the entire coast of North and South Carolina, but development destroyed much of its habitat and today it can be found in its natural habitat only in secluded spots such as Green Swamp or Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve in Horry County.

The plants can be grown from existing tissue culture in greenhouses and are widely available nationwide, sold for usually no more than a few dollars.

Whoever took the plants probably is trying to sell them to a nursery for no more than 15 cents a piece, said Marj Boyer, a N.C. Department of Agriculture botanist.

"If you go to an area that has a lot of Venus' flytraps and you have the right tools, you can have a few hundred plants," Boyer said.

That's exactly what happened last week.

And last year.

And the year before.

"It's a long-standing problem," she said.

The Venus' flytrap is one of two plants that continuously is poached in North Carolina. The other is ginseng, which grows in the mountainous regions of the state and can be sold for about $1 per root. Poaching of ginseng probably will start in August, she said.

However, it's already prime Venus' flytrap poaching season.

"This is the time of year we see most of the problems. That's because the rest of the year flytraps are small and nondescript and are not easy to pick out," Bell said.

Those who poach can face large fines - up to $500 for a first offense and $1,000 for a second offense.

But poachers are rarely caught.

"Part of the frustration is you literally have to catch them in the act. Short of that, there's really nothing I can do to punish or do to catch a poacher," Bell said.

Those who grow the plants are allowed to sell them. But there's no documentation needed to prove the plants aren't stolen.

The Nature Conservancy can't have someone watching the 15,000-acre Green Swamp all the time either, Bell said. And neither does he want to.

"It's frustrating for us to try and offer this property for the public benefit. But when you have people come in and do things like this makes us wonder: Why do we have it open to public? We want to have opportunities for visitors to come in and see and appreciate how nice they are," he said.

He fears if poaching of the Venus' flytrap continues, future generations won't be able to see one of the most fascinating plants in the world grow in its natural habitat anymore.

"These are an incredibly unique natural feature of this area. There's rapidly diminishing habitat and you can find them in abundance in a handful of places," he said. "If we continue to have people go in there and go poaching, it will knock populations down and won't be viable."
 
Oh, what a horrible thing to come home to. I'm sorry, Ozzy.
I don't understand where people get off doing this kind of thing. 15¢ a plant? You've got to be kidding me - how could anyone expect to turn a profit on that? A few hundred plants... what could they have made for their afternoon of hard labor mucking around a swamp, $75? And that's before overhead - just the nursery pots for that many plants would probably eat up the 15¢ a pop.
I can understand someone turning to amoral actions to make a buck, but being a stupid criminal is something that's totally inexcusable.
~Joe
 
OK, let me knee-jerk here for a second:

Poachers should be hanged publically (short-drop, slow strangulation method... none of this humane long-drop crap), and their bodies tarred and gibbetted in the location from which they poached.

Why the heck is VFT not CITES-I yet? If documentation were required, then this would mostly stop.

And at $0.15 a plant, wouldn't the poachers do better to set up greenhouse facilities, get a few hundred plants from Agri-Starts, and begin their own propagating operation?
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (seedjar @ June 12 2005,5:47)]Oh, what a horrible thing to come home to. I'm sorry, Ozzy.
I don't understand where people get off doing this kind of thing. 15¢ a plant? You've got to be kidding me - how could anyone expect to turn a profit on that? A few hundred plants... what could they have made for their afternoon of hard labor mucking around a swamp, $75? And that's before overhead - just the nursery pots for that many plants would probably eat up the 15¢ a pop.
I can understand someone turning to amoral actions to make a buck, but being a stupid criminal is something that's totally inexcusable.
~Joe
If they're selling for $0.15 a plant, they're prolly not potting them, just selling hundreds of obviously-dug-up plants to an equally-unscrupulous nursery.

Hang the nursery owners, as well.
 
I guess there must be more to it. Or maybe they're just saying the VFTs fetch 15¢ a piece to discourage would-be poachers. In any case it's pretty depraved. I can think of a dozen better ways to make easy money that have nothing to do with the harvest of endangered species. Haven't these people ever heard of identity theft?
~Joe
 
I think the $0.15 quote is misleading. There are some venus flytraps selling for $12.95 on Ebay.

Oz, I checked Ebay and did not see anything that looked unusual, but it may be too soon to see them yet. Maybe in the next few weeks. They could even sell them to local nurseries.

Isn't it the Netherlands that has the noteriety for poaching the Green Swamp? I forget the story, but one person was awoken in the A of M, and the caller DEMANDED to acquire 100,000 flytraps.

There is an Australian website that clones them by the millions. I do not understand why anyone would suffer the bugs and briars for a plant that could be bought in almost any nursery or CP vendor, in many countries.

That whole area is such a high traffic area, that I see little hope for protecting flytraps insutu or the Green Swamp as a whole.

It was around 15 years ago that I was last there. I remember seeing freshly dug drainage ditches, filled with water. The purpose was to dry out areas of the Green Swamp for development. I remember thinking then, 'This is the end of the Green Swamp.'

Where is the power of the Wetlands Preservation Laws?

I hope the NASC includes the other CP also. It would not be that difficult and many species occur together.

I can not be optimistic for the future of CP in the wild. Dollars, furture tax base from development, and money will win over our beloved CP everytime.

Even in "protected" areas there is poaching.

The NASC needs to get into full swing as soon as possible.

Time is running out.

Tweek
 
When I get more time I'll give my thoughts on this.
They don't realize there's a new sherriff in town.
 
Hmm no VFTs on ebay yet. Yeah well Equilibrio is crazy and a horrible nursery and anyone who buys VFTs from them is crazy (this is my true feelings about them not jsut b/c I'm on terra).
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Treaqum @ June 13 2005,1:26)]Hmm no VFTs on ebay yet.  Yeah well Equilibrio is crazy and a horrible nursery and anyone who buys VFTs from them is crazy (this is my true feelings about them not jsut b/c I'm on terra).
I bought a book from them. What makes them a bad nursery?
 
  • #11
Here's what I think is happening.
There is a cp greenhouse that pays people to bring them plants. I have talked to the owner and he as told me that he buys cp's from people that go around and collects them. So the ones that's are doing the poaching are really selling them for a low price. The GH owner then pots them up grows the under extreme amounts of light and then ships them around the country for $45 for a case of 25.
 
  • #12
What are you doing/what can we do to discourage this practice?
 
  • #13
I'm going to contact the person in charge of the site and talk to him.
What you can do is watch ebay for any bare root flytraps. Be on the lookout for any bare root vft's for sale, not just on ebay.
 
  • #14
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I forget the story, but one person was awoken in the A of M, and the caller DEMANDED to acquire 100,000 flytraps

Yeah, that was Donald Schnell. I don't think there's any evidence of an ything to do with The Netherlands though
smile_l_32.gif
 
  • #15
Oz,

Do you mean the person that has been busted for this practice before in NC, or the one in NY that pays others to do his dirty work?

Tweek
 
  • #16
No, the person I am thinking of as not been busted before (as far as I know).
No, the person or GH is not from NY.

I want to add, that everything I have said about this is my opinion and not fact. I don't know anymore about the case other than what has been reported to the media.
 
  • #17
Absolutely disheartening.
 
  • #18
Barry Rice periodically goes on field trips and then posts trip reports with lots of excellent photos. A year or so ago, he made a trip to the Green Swamp. In it, he showed photos of holes where poachers dug up plants (Sarracenia & VFTs). In addition, some of the poachers are in it it for the seed. They put flags out and come back when the seed has matured to collect it. Without the ability to replenish themselves, the populations will continue to decline even if the poachers don't take the plants.

Here's a link to the middle of his field trip. Go backward to read about the sarracenia poaching and forward for VFT poaching.

Barry Rice Green Swamp Trip

Really nice picts too...
 
  • #19
I'm going to go there either in a few hours or first thing in the morning. Maybe I'll find the holes. It really pisses me off that there are going to be 1000 less vft's to find and take pics of.
 
  • #20
I just found this article.

[b said:
Quote[/b] ] Posted on Tue, Jul. 05, 2005

EDITORIAL

Stealing From Nature

It's unfortunate poachers target such rare plant as Venus' flytrap

What an asset that Grand Strand residents have access to such pristine nature preserves as the Green Swamp Preserve in Brunswick County, N.C., or Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve in Horry County.

As the coastal region's development pushes farther west, nature preserves make it possible for us to still get a glimpse of the fragile environment that existed here before hotels, golf courses and shopping malls moved in.

Unfortunately, that public access is a double-edged sword, because poachers are allowed entrance as readily as nature-admirers.

The most frequent target of the thieves in the preserves is the Venus' flytrap, a rare carnivorous plant that grows nowhere else in the world but in wetland from Horry County up to Wilmington, N.C.

Clusters of the insect-eating plant once grew along the coast, but large clusters of them remain only in such preserves as the Green Swamp and Lewis Ocean Bay.

Recently, poachers dug up hundreds of flytraps in the nature preserve in the Green Swamp. The same thing has happened in the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve, and the thievery takes place year after year.

The poachers who take the flytraps probably sell them, but they aren't likely to get more than 10 to 15 cents for them because horticulturists grow them commercially. They can be bought in garden centers for only a few dollars.

Fines for taking Venus' flytraps can be large, but poachers rarely are caught.

Under the federal Endangered Species Act, flytraps are not considered threatened, but they are considered "a species of special concern."

Still, some worry that someday no flytraps will survive in their natural habitat.

The Nature Conservancy owns the almost 16,000-acre Green Swamp preserve. Dan Bell, project director for the Nature Conservancy, recently told The Sun News: "If we continue to have people go in there and go poaching, it will knock populations down and won't be viable."

Too bad some folks aren't content with simply marveling at such a fascinating plant, and too bad more of them aren't caught and fined.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/news/opinion/12055318.htm
 
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