Hey Folks,
I just wanted to let you all know that Brad and I talked on the phone for a little over 2 hours yesterday and came to terms on the direction of any possible association or organization for the smaller growers, diggers and the Ginseng Dealers will take. As in most disagreements over the internet, it mainly came down to misunderstanding and misinterpretation of what each other wrote!
As Brad wrote, the days of harvesting, buying and selling Wild Ginseng and possibly even growing, buying and selling of Wild-Simulated or Woodsgrown Ginseng unregulated, are long gone! We all must face this realization and be willing to do everything we possibly can to insure that any regulating of any of these, will not adversely affect them and what we love to do. However, we must understand that after all the work and efforts that we and others do, Wild Ginseng harvesting, buying and selling may eventually become outlawed. While trying to prevent this from happening, we must at the same time, concentrate efforts to protect the growing of Wild-Simulated and Woodsgrown Ginseng and the small-time growers of these. It is our hopes and I am sure the hopes of everyone on here, that Wild Ginseng harvesting, buying and selling will never be outlawed and that any laws concerning it, will not adversely affect Wild-Simulated and Woodsgrown Ginseng and the growers of such!
Whether you are just a Wild Ginseng Digger that practices good stewardship or a Wild Ginseng Digger that practices good stewardship but also purchases and plants Wild-Simulated and/or Woodsgrown Ginseng seeds or rootlets or you are mainly a small-time grower of the latter two, it is time for us to band together in a common cause! Please consider this, discuss this with other Ginseng Diggers/Growers that you may know and are not members of Wildgrown or do not have online access and try to get as many folks as you possibly can to come onboard, if and when an association or organization gets off the ground. The main reasons that other Ginseng Digger/Growers associations have failed, is mainly due to the wide diversity of the members and possible members, members being widely spread, lack of technology (especially for some in Appalachia), disagreements on direction and mission and sometimes the costs of membership to maintain such an association. We all must work together and individually to overcome any and or all of these problems! Hopefully in the very near future, a poll for creating such an association or organization will be posted here on the forums and will include the question: whether you are willing to become a member or whether you are not willing to become a member. I hope most will answer that you are willing to become a member as any possible association or organization will need as many members as possible to make this work!
A lot of work must be done! First, we must work to get a voice with those folks, agencies or entities that count (i.e. make the decisions, regulations and laws and those who create the input to either of these) whether it be at the local, State or the Federal level. Second, we must work to educate, inform and convince the folks that make decisions on regulating Ginseng (i.e. politicians, ecologists, scientists, etc.) that together, we can make a difference and save Wild Ginseng. Third, we also need to educate and inform Wild-Simulated and/or Woodsgrown Growers and even the Diggers of the laws and regulations, especially any new ones of which they may be unaware of and also on the practices of good stewardship. Fourth, we all need to work to stop Ginseng poaching on any and all lands whether they are private, public or Federally protected. Work to stop the harvesting of the roots of immature plants (i.e. flat tops, two prongs and even immature or young three prongs) and to stop the Ginseng Dealers that have done so and still purchase these roots of immature plants and resell those roots to a specific customer base. Without a market for these roots, hopefully poachers and others that dig the roots of immature plants, would no longer have a reason to dig them! Fifth, we must work to get each and every State where Wild Ginseng is harvested to more align their' Wild Ginseng Harvesting, buying and selling laws and regulations. However, we must at the same time, understand that some states have shorter growing seasons and earlier Fall cold weather than some others and thus, they must maintain an earlier Ginseng Season than these others. Also, we must get any states that have regulations and/or laws such as requiring Ginseng Diggers to log entries of daily harvests (which includes the date, the poundage and the county in which it was harvested) and thus a similar requirement of the Ginseng Dealers within these states, to do away with such ludicrous laws or regulations. The main concern is not to know where each and every root came from within a state and the exact dates and poundage but to know whether it was harvested during the current year or previous year, the total poundage and whether it was harvested on private or public lands! While harvests by individual counties may be great in determining stats for each county, these requirements are too time and cost intensive for everyone involved!
Please consider all of these things and if you have any ideas, suggestions or disagreements with anything, post them here so that they can be considered and discussed. We really need everyone's input and insight!
Thanks and please excuse any typing mistakes or redundancy!
Frank
