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Weapon of choice against poachers?
- Thread starter SarraceniaScott
- Start date
BigCarnivourKid
It's been one of dem days
A lot of plants wouldn't be in circulation/Tissue Culture now if it weren't for poachers (albeit responsible ones). According to Cites poaching includes taking seed pods just as much as it includes taking a whole field full of plants. The history of botany and ornamental plants is rife with poaching. Doesn't make it right but it's true.
What really irks me is that it's illegal for me to save a wild orchid from a construction site yet it's perfectly legal for the highway dept to plow it under, guarenteeing the death of it's genes.
"At least no darn hippies got their hands on our state flower!"
What really irks me is that it's illegal for me to save a wild orchid from a construction site yet it's perfectly legal for the highway dept to plow it under, guarenteeing the death of it's genes.
"At least no darn hippies got their hands on our state flower!"
PlantAKiss
Moderator Schmoderator Fluorescent fluorite, Engl
It seems violence is a way to solve problems. So...I guess that means all those thousands of people that are rioting, burning/destroying the Dutch embassy and other buildings, and killing and injuring people over a cartoon have the right idea in mind...
I think I'd take the person and try to educate them about the importance of leaving the plants in the wild and also point out their beauty, elegance and uniquenss so that they could learn to appreciate them. If that didn't work...I'd report them to the police for trespassing and destroying private property.
I think I'd take the person and try to educate them about the importance of leaving the plants in the wild and also point out their beauty, elegance and uniquenss so that they could learn to appreciate them. If that didn't work...I'd report them to the police for trespassing and destroying private property.
I tend to define poachers in an ethical way, rather than legal way.[b said:
"Responsible" poaching, done by somebody who knows how to impact the population the least, doesn't count. Collecting that orchid that's about to be plowed under is perfectly fine with me.
If what you are doing will ultimately benefit the wild population, then i don't ethically define it as poaching.
seedjar
Let's positive thinking!
Well if they're out poaching there's probably plenty of sticks around. I've always been handy with a blunt object. Their own shovel, perhaps? And there's a neat trick for pinning a person to the ground with a stick for a long time without hurting them; I don't remember the name of it, but you can just walk off and it's about as good as tying them to a small tree. I think that would be appropriate for this occasion. I'm not so worried about educating poachers as I am about delivering them to the proper authorities. The poachers already know about what they're doing, for the most part - I'm sure that they notice when the populations they cull from die out.
~Joe
~Joe
This is just a knee-jerk thread to vent about poaching.[b said:
As for attempting to educate, you have two types of poachers, ones who are naive, and want the pretty plant for themselves, and the greedy, who want to make a fast buck. Guess which kind does more damage, and which kind will heed your warnings.
Maybe I'm overly cynical, but I've come to the realisation that ~70% of humanity never rises above talking animal. I wouldn't waste my time talking to them; I'd go straight to the police.
[b said:
[b said:
Unless a plant is listed as protected, threatened, of special concern, or endangered, it is perfectly legal to collect said plant. In fact as part of my schooling, as a Natural Resource Technician, I as well as the other 50 or so students in the program were required to put together a herbarium collection. Sarracenia purpurea subsp. purpurea as well as D. rotundifolia, were on out lists of plants to collect, as neither has any special status in Wisconsin. Ofcourse I couldn't bring myself to collect either, and just collected more common Bog plants to fill that part of the asignment.
In Illinois, it is illegal to take ANYTHING from State Parks. Seeds, plants, rocks, sticks, whatever. I work at a State Park, part time on a volunteer basis. They don't even let volunteers take seeds, let alone plants. You can collect from Federal lands(national forests, national monuments) with a permit. It is illegal to collect from roadsides, unless you've got written permission from the state. Which is a pain in the butt to get, but can be obtained after many hours on hold.
Some National Park employees have taken to accompanying "students" to sites that contain rare/endangered plants because these "students" had a tendency to over-collect the plants that they wanted to "study".
The only place you can collect without a permit is private property, but you must, of course, have the owner's permission. A former member here had some school/do gooder go thru her woods and "rescue" all her trillium grandiflorum. Which she had bought and planted.
If the collector doesn't have a permit or permission, the collector is stealing, plain and simple. and can be arrested and prosecuted, which they should be..and I don't care if the bulldozer is sitting right there.
People who just go out and dig up whatever, whenever really give legitimate plant rescue groups(like the Wild Ones)a bad name, and make it harder for them to do their job. Just IMO.
Some National Park employees have taken to accompanying "students" to sites that contain rare/endangered plants because these "students" had a tendency to over-collect the plants that they wanted to "study".
The only place you can collect without a permit is private property, but you must, of course, have the owner's permission. A former member here had some school/do gooder go thru her woods and "rescue" all her trillium grandiflorum. Which she had bought and planted.
If the collector doesn't have a permit or permission, the collector is stealing, plain and simple. and can be arrested and prosecuted, which they should be..and I don't care if the bulldozer is sitting right there.
People who just go out and dig up whatever, whenever really give legitimate plant rescue groups(like the Wild Ones)a bad name, and make it harder for them to do their job. Just IMO.
