TOPIC: Ginseng Poaching Featuered on CBS This Morning Program

Ginseng poaching, with a NC and TN focus, was featured on CBS This Morning.

Here is a link to the article they posted a short while ago.

www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57601454...al-of-plant-species/

If anyone finds a link to the video, would appreciate a post. Thanks!

very informative, thanks.

YOu go - CBS!!!

Pretty good vid until you get to the end where the two hosts are discussing growing and increasing. It's real obvious that they don't have a clue about how the plant needs to grow.

I can see the report as real trouble for Ginseng Diggers and Buyers! Someone pulled some strings to get CBS to do the report, so this means that they are trying to pressure the Federal Government or the States to completely shutdown harvesting and sales of Wild Ginseng. Of course, as seen from the report, CBS is unaware of businesses and private individuals growing Wild Simulated Ginseng and some growing both Wild and Wild Simulated Ginseng. Since CBS is unaware, then you can imagine the percentage of the politicians and the public who are also unaware! They are also unaware, that while the USDA and NF Service is is doing nothing to conserve Wild Ginseng other than limit the Season for harvesting, the amount of harvesters (diggers) and harvested roots, that there are private individuals that have been trying to propagate the Wild Ginseng crops by watching over crops in certain areas, planting seeds and sometimes, even transplanting roots in hopes of saving the Wild populations of Ginseng.

I know that Ginseng Diggers and some Buyers have resisted organizing cooperatives or other organizations with Wild Ginseng as the main concern and topic. However, if there ever was a time to form some kind of organization to protect our' interests in Wild Ginseng and to educate the public, the politicians and hopefully the NF Service and it's parent agency, the USDA, then that time is now before it is too late!


Frank

I have to agree with Frank. I think that they are going to try outlawing the harvesting of wild ginseng. I think it's because it's becoming a big money industry and the government hasn't figured a way to capitalize on it enough yet. I strongly disagree with the dealer that believes that ginseng will be gone in 20 years. Depleted? Possibly. Extinct, NO! As I have stated before, I believe that logging, mining, and developments have harmed the state of wild ginseng way more than diggers. Pretty much everyone that is on this forum practices good stewardship. I myself buy seeds from here every year and broadcast them in the woods. We all know that ginseng doesn't come up every year. Sometimes the tops get eaten off by wildlife. We could be standing on a stalk of seng at any time in the woods and not even know it. I myself have run into the ginseng root that is growing out from under tree roots and was not able to get it out. How many plants get trapped under fallen trees that don't get to grow until the tree decays? People have always broken the law. They will continue to. It's up to us diggers to do the right thing at all times and to ensure that ginseng is here for future generations.

I saw this on CBS this morning,and joined wildgrown.com right after seeing it.
I live in Wisconsin and I plan on growing some ginseng on my property.
I really enjoy everyone's insights on this CBS coverage. I'm very interested in seeing what the coming years will do for ginseng survival. I'm going to try and do my small part.
Can anyone tell me what animals to watch out for that may destroy my plants?
Thanks,
Edy

I really dont see it being very likely for ginseng to become extinct. A large number of ginseng harvesters will buy seed and take it with them when digging wild and plant it. Some might say that would make it wild sim and maybe so, but that is a lot of what is dug and sold as wild every year. This has been going on for many many years and I am sure most diggers have dug some of this without even knowing it. Also if people are growing ginseng on their property birds and deer etc. carry some of the seeds off and start new patches.

Maybe the forest service should spend some of that fortune they make off logging to buy and plant some stratified ginseng seeds.

The cluelessness of the commentators is very telling. I think they will absolutely be shutting down ginseng harvest in the future, especially given all the new restrictions on public land that came out this year. It's likely that those will increase over the next 10 years.

I don't think ginseng will become extinct either, but the harvest very well may become unsustainable. But we need more population monitoring at the state level over a period of several years to better understand how populations are responding to harvest pressure. There is some good research happening in VA specific to black cohosh and ramps using those research questions.

There should be resources dedicated to restoration efforts. I have recently tried to initiate a project with the forest service in our area to propagate and use local seed to distribute to harvesters who purchase a permit to dig. That has gone nowhere yet. The reason why they wont buy stratified seed to plant for restoration is partly because most of the funded research in the last 10 years has been all about genetics and raised the whole debate about genetic integrity of wild populations. We are just now starting to hear more talk about developing \"seed banks\" of local ginseng seed.

Whats up with that dealer, 90% of what he buys is poached? and it will be gone in 20yrs? The summertime diggers are the ones that are really hurting the plant. No fruit no seng they move on. I wish they would listen to ya Frank, I agree.

rickyc wrote:

Whats up with that dealer, 90% of what he buys is poached? and it will be gone in 20yrs? The summertime diggers are the ones that are really hurting the plant. No fruit no seng they move on. I wish they would listen to ya Frank, I agree.

Yeah, if he knows that he is buying poached seng, then he is just as much a ciminal as the poachers! There are folks that volunteer as watchers that stake out big Ginseng patches in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and I believe a few other National Parks in the East. They watch for poachers and when they see someone digging seng, they get the License Tag Number off their' vehicles and call into the LEO's. No confronting the poachers is allowed, although some of these folks are licensed and do carry! Some of the volunteers are honest, good meaning folks but they do have a few enviro nuts mixed in the bunch. It may come to this for us as Ginseng Diggers and Buyers, where we might have to patrol certain areas within our local areas but who really has the time or funds??!! I know that most of the Diggers and Buyers work other jobs and some of us are retired but are on fixed incomes.

Thanks rickyc! I really do believe that we need some type of organization, so that we can educate the politicians and the public and hopefully, get support in trying to save the Wild Ginseng populations. In any case, we need to get the NF folks to do something for the Permit Fees that they collect, instead of sitting on their' big a%$es and writing Ginseng harvesting rules which they clearly have no clue on how to do so!

By the way, I received my' notice that I was selected for a Ginseng Harvesting Permit in the North Cherokee National Forest! Now, I will have to see if I can get the location I want and if not, I will keep my' $20 and walk away.


Frank