WP: Poachers Looting National Parks of Treasures

[DeepModem Mom]

Poachers Looting National Parks of Treasures
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 24, 2005; Page A08


....While the National Park Service does not keep comprehensive statistics on how much poaching occurs in its nearly 400 parks, its 2006 budget request reported that thefts have helped spur the decline of at least 29 wildlife species. "The poaching of wildlife from national parks has been steadily increasing each year for the past several years," the document said.

Some of these resources are scarce to begin with, and the toll that poaching takes on the national parks is rising....

***

Because national parks enjoy special protections -- hunting is prohibited, and activities such as mining and logging are restricted -- they are home to plants and animals that are scarce elsewhere. That has attracted thieves who often go to extraordinary lengths to spirit away flora and fauna and then sell to the highest bidder.

In Shenandoah National Park, the ginseng and the black bears that thrive along the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains are the biggest draw for poachers. Wild ginseng sells for $400 a pound on the open market, 10 times the price of cultivated ginseng. And a black bear's dried gallbladder sells for $1,000 in Asia, making it worth more per ounce than cocaine....

***

Park officials are most concerned, however, that poaching is depleting nonrenewable resources, such as remnants of ancient civilizations and very rare species. Thieves take at least one archaeological artifact from a park every day, they say, and a 1988 federal survey found poachers had taken 105 wildlife species from 153 parks the year before. That illegal take included 12 threatened and endangered species, including the desert tortoise, Steller sea lion and Schaus swallowtail butterfly....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/23/AR2005102300796.html

[Jara sang]

1. Not to worry... I'm sure Bush is right on it.

:eyes: Yeah right!

[roguevalley]

2. do what they do in Africa: Shoot them back, the fuckers.

[glitch]

4. second that.

:grr:

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. Yep - poaching should be an executable offense

Every time I hear about poaching, especially taking endangered species so that fuckbags in Asia can have some kind of 1 oz. sex cure from a 4000 pound beast, I want to go to Africa (or wherever) and just start hunting the hunters.

[Puglover]

29. I agree, shoot them and let the animals get them.

Odd that I don't believe in capital punishment. How nuts is that? But the thought of someone killing a bear for their fucking gallbladder makes me crazy.
:crazy:

[tularetom]

3. Boy am I disappointed

I clicked on this thread because I thought it said "preachers looting national parks of treasures". I have some strong opinions on poaching which I think I'll keep to myself.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Why can't we have our own volunteer army to patrol our national parks?

We can call it, the Green Brigade.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Hey, good idea! I think I'd volunteer. nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. I picture two or three month training where you can also learn to

survive in the forest. Cover a lot of ground. But have the blackberries to report anyone that is up to no good.

[bluestateguy]

6. Poachers should be shot

That's one form of shooting looters that I would endorse.

Or turn em' over to the wild animals for justice under their laws.

[HuffleClaw]

7. Wild ginseng sells for $400 a pound on the open market ?

wow. so if ya plant some in yer woodlot is its 'wild' ? that could be very lucrative i bet.

[Whoa_Nelly]

8. Hasn't there been a huge cutback in Nat'l Parks' service personnel

thanks to IdiotBoy? Maybe if there were more people to watch over our parks, there wouldn't be the incentive for poachers to go in knowing they are less likely to be caught.

But, I could be wrong.....

[DeepModem Mom]

12. The article, re. funding --

"While the government has provided more money for enforcement in recent years, officials could not say whether it was aimed at poaching or other activities. Blake Selzer, legislative representative at the National Parks Conservation Association, said the lack of enforcement 'is yet another consequence of the funding shortfall facing our national parks.'"

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

11. The Bush answer: Cut down more trees, set up oil derricks or

strip mining operations.

Problem solved. Nothing to poach.

[Trashman]

14. I don't know

Some people are feeding there families this way. They can't find a job and they have to eat.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

15. You are correct.

Down in Bath County VA, this is how some people feed their family, through Ginseng gathering.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

16. Bwahahaha!!!!

That's a good one!

"Honey, I couldn't get a job, but I brought back this noce hawk for dinner!"

[Lorien]

17. Illegal activities are not the answer. If people are starving, then we

should be raising holy hell about it and demanding that job training and other safety nets be provided. Poaching scarce resources into extinction IS NOT the answer.

Biodiversity loss is an enormous threat to our species survival, and few in this country understand just how dire a threat it truly has become. Short term profits at the expense of our future must NEVER be an option.

[XemaSab]

20. It shouldn't be a choice

between protecting species and feeding people.

It's only the republicans who make this some sort of trade-off.

[spacelady]

18. Now, by publishing the price of wild ginseng, there will be a whole new

crop of poachers--way to increase the crime, idiots!

[oregonindy]

19. yep...form a militia and protect the animals.

[pinniped]

21. Those scumbags took a steller sea lion?

I agree, shoot the bastards.

[antonialee839]

22. No worries, I'm sure snow mobiles and oil rigs will

soon chase those poachers out of there.

[Coventina]

23. Abolish traditional Chinese "medicine".

That'll put a stop to a lot of it.

There needs to be a worldwide movement to get these insane practices stopped. And no, I don't mean acupuncture. I mean the use of exotic animal products as "cures".

[Bridget Burke]

24. How do you "abolish" something that ancient?

Of course, use of exotic animals (& cruel use of non-exotic animals) should be stopped. But--what percentage of the Traditional pharmacopeia consists of exotic animal products? We can learn from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

Within China, there has been a great deal of cooperation between TCM practitioners and Western medicine, especially in the field of ethnomedicine. Chinese herbal medicine includes many compounds which are unused by Western medicine, and there is great interest in those compounds as well as the theories which TCM practitioners use to determine which compound to prescribe. For their part, advanced TCM practitioners in China are interested in statistical and experimental techniques which can better distinguish medicines that work from those that do not. One result of this collaboration has been the creation of peer reviewed scientific journals and medical databases on traditional Chinese medicine...

Most Chinese in China do not see traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine as being in conflict. In cases of emergency and crisis situations, there is generally no reluctance in using conventional Western medicine. At the same time, belief in Chinese medicine remains strong in the area of maintaining health. To put it simply, you see a Western doctor if you have acute appendicitis, but you do exercises or take Chinese herbs to keep your body healthy enough to prevent appendicitis, or to recover more quickly from the surgery. Very few practitioners of Western medicine in China reject traditional Chinese medicine, and most doctors in China will use some elements of Chinese medicine in their own practice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_medicine

[Coventina]

27. ok, fine. Abolish "TCM" that involves cruelty and endangered animal

products.

I wouldn't want to deprive anyone of their herbal tea, as long as it isn't made of endangered plants.

[Bridget Burke]

28. So--when do you start?

Do you speak Chinese?

[blindpig]

26. A lot of it is conspicuous consumption

The new money in China displaying itself in ways that would make Diamond Jim Brady proud.

While a lot of the herbal treatments of Traditional Chinese Medicine are spot on many of the animal uses have been added over the years and are no more than sympathetic magic.

Besides the above mentioned species our populations of freshwater turtles are being hammered by this same demand. Tractor trailers are just loaded up by itinerant trappers, many on the bottom of the heap dead, and shipped to China. They've virtually exterminated their once extensive turtle fauna, are hitting SE Asia hard, and our turtles are next. Just like the good old days of whaling, when many taxa of giant tortoise were exterminated because they lived long in misery thus providing fresh meat for the whalers.

[kentuck]

25. That's OK...we're going to sell them anyway...

Haven't you heard?