Plant Theft From The Blue Ridge Parkway

As I have written before, plant theft from our National Parks is a growing problem.  Vegetative populations are being devastated for the financial gain of a few.  National Parks belong to us all and these criminals are stealing from each citizen of this country.

Recently Park Rangers on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia caught two groups of people illegally digging valuable ginseng plants within the park.

The following is taken from the October 9th National Park Service Morning Report;

Blue Ridge Parkway

Rangers Make Two Ginseng Poaching Cases

On Sunday, September 30th, protection rangers in

the Ridge District detected and apprehended two separate groups of poachers 

illegally taking ginseng from park lands.  A group of four was seen digging illegally by

rangers Jeremy Sears and Marc Cyr; three of them were cited for the illegal

removal of the plant. 



Rangers Zeph Cunningham and Miranda Cook then

contacted two people as they walked along the parkway to their vehicle.

Further investigation resulted in the rangers discovering a bag stashed in

the woods that contained a large amount of ginseng and digging tools. One

of the people they contacted admitted to digging the ginseng and was placed

under arrest. A search of their vehicle resulted in the discovery of a

second bag of ginseng. 



Wild ginseng is currently being sold for $500 to

$600 per pound. [Kurt Speers, Ridge District Ranger]