TOPIC: a question about poachers

I'm new to this forum and enjoy reading some of the posts. It seems like there's quite a bit of mispelling going on here. Maybe they spell words different where you guys are from. I don't know it just makes me laugh . Anyways on to my question. Let's say I ask someone to hunt their woods and they reply \"no\" and I decide to go anyways. Is that poaching? I mean morally it doesn't feel like I'm doing anything wrong. I really don't know how someone who has no reason to deny permission to access their woods can sleep at night knowing that they are not going to dig ginseng in their own woods but they are not going to let anyone else either. Talk about morals! It seems like the worst part about poaching is getting caught. I mean I don't like poachers as much as the next guy .I think they should be whipped like Sengnut said in his post . If I had a big patch of roots I wouldn't want anyone stealing it. That's another thing I don't like . I don't like theives. Had this neighbor one time that came over and stole my lawnmower right out of my damn yard! He had the nerve the day before to ask me if he could borrow it!!! Can you believe that ? I don't know what the heck is wrong with people these days.

I know my Father never dug a root in his life but my grandfather did. And I'm sure glad that my father never allowed anyone to dig on our ground my whole life... If he did, there would not be any ginseng for me and my family to dig and care for. I hate poachers as much as the next guy but if you have been told no then just maybe it's because there is someone else that he thinks would want to dig it sometime in the future... I have 16 plants that my grandfather use to take me to as a small boy to plant the berries every year. He told me when I was 6 years old that he planted those plants there when he was 22. That would make those plants that have supplied me and my family with berries over 70 plus years old. I know that some people say that it does not live that long, But I know for sure it does. I have one plant that does not come up every year but when it does, I will post a pic of it. It always sends out a second berry pod on top of the first with four small prongs coming out of the second. Without those old plants in our patch, We would never be able to plant the amount of berries that it has taken to make a profitable patch...

If they say no and you do it anyway, thats poaching.

Rural Action Forestry wrote:

If they say no and you do it anyway, thats poaching.

I agree!

If you look at the definition of poaching (below from animal poaching):

\"Poaching can refer to the failure to comply with regulations for legal harvest, resulting in the illegal taking of wildlife that would otherwise be allowable.\"

Then poaching seng would not only include hunting seng where you don't have landowner permission, but would also include hunting it out of season or not complying with conservation requirements written into your states ginseng hunting laws.

Many years ago when I first started hunting seng (1970's) landowners were much more likely to say yes to seng hunting on their property even if they did not know the individual all that well. No days I think a lot of folks just don't trust strangers (and with good reason - ever watch the evening news ?). There are some real NUTS out there these days.

TNhunter

If you ask and they say no, then it definatly would be wrong to dig anyway.One thing to remember is growers now have the ability to mark their roots,and I guess others may be marking their ginseng even if they dont grow.
Trespassing can have a pretty hefty fine and jail time if you get caught.

Rural Action Forestry wrote:

If they say no and you do it anyway, thats poaching.

I also agree 100 0/0

if i catch round my neck of the woods i'll cut a switch on yore ass. if i says no that meens i dont want you pokin round my holler.

So Shangdude, if someone comes to you and asks to borrow, say 100,000 dollars from your retirement account, and you say \"no\", but then that person hacks into your account and takes out the money, that would not be stealing it, right? They may just have figured that it was setting there and you weren't really going to use it anyway. Same scenario as you laid out. Or let's say you have fifty acres of timber and someone asks if they can cut firewood or have some trees and you say \"no\" but, they help themselves anyway because they were just \"standing there\" and you probably aren't going to use it anyway.

A thief is a thief, no matter what the situation.

Dieselrider wrote:

So Shangdude, if someone comes to you and asks to borrow, say 100,000 dollars from your retirement account, and you say \"no\", but then that person hacks into your account and takes out the money, that would not be stealing it, right? They may just have figured that it was setting there and you weren't really going to use it anyway. Same scenario as you laid out. Or let's say you have fifty acres of timber and someone asks if they can cut firewood or have some trees and you say \"no\" but, they help themselves anyway because they were just \"standing there\" and you probably aren't going to use it anyway.

A thief is a thief, no matter what the situation.

!!! Here Here !!! Well Said