Conservation by Propagation
James Waddick (Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:00:38 PDT)

Dear Friends,
Tony, Tom and others have spoken clearly for the role of
cultivated propagation and distribution of rare plants, yet it seems
all the cards are stacked against both the nurseries and the
gardeners.

Growing any rare plants in commerce has GOT TO reduce the
pressure on wild collection. This is just so obvious and a no brainer
to make ones head split at disagreement. Almost the ONLY people who
demand wild material from a known location are the very botanical
gardens who will prevent their distribution.

I hate to bemoan the acts of all botanic gardens as there are
certainly good conservators, likewise their are nurseries who
knowingly dig and sell illegal plants. Both of these are to more or
less extent ruled by federal and international regulations that are
often meaningless or misguided.

I recommend both 'Orchid Fever' by Eric Hansen and The Orchid
Thief' by Susan Orleans to get different sides of a similar story of
thievery, black market sales, wealthy immoral plant collectors and
crazed protectors. The bottom line is that it is extremely difficult
to tell a rare, wild collect plant from a validly, legally grown rare
plant of the same species. One need only see 'Nursery Grown"
Trilliums selling for a dollar or two. This is economically
impossible. Plants are often wild collected en masse, stuck in the
ground for a season and given new legal papers. A fraud at best.

On another hand the extremely onerous regulations make it
almost a game and challenge for well meaning individuals to import a
plant or bulb "in disguise". EBay has sure made this even more
attractive. Add to this an impossible job of inspecting and
regulating mail and packages coming into the US and illegal plants
surely arrive multiple times per day into the US. Perhaps other
countries are more able to inspect and filter illegal plants. I doubt
it.

I won't even start on CITES regulations which are nearly
insane in their logic or national ownership of plant materials which
prevents distribution of any plant pending its confirmed value ( See
how the Chinese dealt with yellow camellias for example).

I have worked on both sides of the conservation table - for
years for an international conservation organization which only
begrudgingly interacted with a couple expert individuals, but mostly
avoided the entire topic of 'home grown.

I can't bring this to a point or even suggest a lesson to be
learned other than my topic.

If all involved in conservation could support, allow and
encourage 'Conservation by Propagation' it seems that both individual
gardeners would have access to rare and unusual plants and wild
plants would have some chance for recovery and preservation. It seems
you can't have one without the other.

I have used amazing self control in these remarks and it
pains me. I can rant real good!! Best Jim
--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph. 816-746-1949
Zone 5 Record low -23F
Summer 100F +