From the Courier-Journal, by Alan Maimon
SPEWING CAMP BRANCH, Ky. -- With the arrival of spring, Mammoth Cave National Park rangers say they are bracing for thousands of visitors -- some with larceny on their minds.
Their bounty: ginseng, a root that can sell for as much as $400 a pound.
But harvesting ginseng is illegal at Mammoth Cave, and some plants there have been dyed pink and wired with motion detectors or tracking devices that send out a radio locator signal.
Rangers say these measures are necessary because overzealous poaching has threatened to all but eliminate the root at Mammoth Cave.
The park's efforts reflect growth of ginseng theft in Kentucky and across the country in parks, forests and even on private property. At stake in some places is the very survival of the root, which is used as a stimulant.
"Poaching has led to overharvesting, and that makes us concerned about the sustainability of ginseng," said Rex Mann, a supervisor at the Daniel Boone National Forest. "There is definitely a dwindling supply."
Since 2000, 10 people have been convicted of theft of government property for taking about 600 ginseng roots at Mammoth Cave. Fines were up to $1,000.
In national and state forests -- but not parks -- diggers can harvest up to one pound of ginseng during the one-month season, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, if they have a $20 permit. Ginseng can be legally harvested on private land with the property owner's consent from Aug. 15 through Dec. 31.
Some Kentuckians said more enforcement is needed for ginseng poaching on private land.
Frances Williams, a farmer who lives on 230 acres about 20 miles from Mammoth Cave, said poachers repeatedly trespass on her property to take as much ginseng as they can find.
"Some day I'd like to dig it myself, but I don't think there's any left," Williams said. "People are used to not taking this kind of thing seriously."
Cash crop
Kentucky leads the nation in the amount of wild American ginseng dug each year, and "ginsenging" -- or sangin', as harvesting is sometimes called -- is a lucrative and little-regulated pastime. It has been dug in Appalachia since colonial days.
More than 90 percent of the Kentucky harvest of the herb ends up in Asia, where many people believe it improves health and has medicinal powers, officials say.
Legal harvesters collect about $10 million worth of ginseng a year in Kentucky, according to Chris Kring, who manages the ginseng program at the state Department of Agriculture.
The reported value of ginseng dug in Kentucky has remained steady since 2000, according to state figures.
But experts say those figures do not take into account illegally dug ginseng.
"The trade in ginseng is similar to the drug trade," said Gary Kauffman, a U.S. Forest Service botanist in North Carolina who studies ginseng. "The vast majority of diggers don't have permits."
Jumping the gun
Park officials in Kentucky said digging before the start of the season is rampant.
David Taylor, a botanist for the Daniel Boone National Forest, said poachers, especially those who dig underdeveloped roots in the spring, pose a threat to the long-term existence of ginseng.
"If you have flowers but no fruit, you can't get any plants from it," he said.
Taylor said scientists would have a better sense of the threat if they knew how much ginseng is being grown in the woods from existing seeds, compared to that randomly dug by poachers and legal harvesters.
State regulations do not require diggers to reveal that information.
Taylor said Kentucky would benefit from stricter laws and beefed-up enforcement. Other states, such as North Carolina, have had a longstanding crackdown on ginseng poachers, he said.
"They've been aware of the problem for longer," Taylor said.
Protecting buried treasure
Mammoth Cave enacted the first of its security measures about three years ago, hoping to prevent ginseng from being pushed into extinction there.
"Ginseng is greatly reduced in the wild already," said Larry Johnson, a ranger at the 52,000-acre Mammoth Cave park.
The measures included increased enforcement, installing motion-detection devices near ginseng plants and dyeing the roots bright pink to identify them, if taken, as having been dug on federal land.
"Usually we just catch them in the act," Johnson said.
Mann said he doubted park officials could adequately protect the nearly 700,000-acre Boone forest against poachers, even by using Mammoth Cave's techniques.
"Very few people go out and get a permit, and we're concerned with that," Mann said. "But we're up against human greed."
Instead, forest officials have begun cultivating ginseng seeds for replanting.
Park officials have asked people with permits to plant only half the seeds they encounter in the forest and bring the other half to the park's offices. The seeds are sent to a Forest Service nursery for eventual replanting on park property.
So far, only one person has brought in seed, said Marie Walker, a park spokeswoman.
Legal sales, harvesting
Ginseng diggers by law must sell the herb to one of 90 dealers registered with the state.
In 2003, 827 diggers in Pike County, which annually leads the state in ginseng harvests, sold 1,775 pounds of wild ginseng to dealers, a harvest with a market value of more than $700,000.
Experienced diggers follow the same routine, botanist Kauffman said.
They identify the ginseng by its bright red berries. With one hand, they scoop off the berries, and with the other whack the root out of the hole with a small shovel. They pull the root out of the ground and throw the seeds back in the ground to encourage future growth.
Jay Dye harvests the herb on his 100 acres in Floyd County, a rite of fall and a good way to earn money to buy Christmas presents, he said.
"Sometimes I'm so eager to get out there, I forget to eat breakfast," said Dye, a 57-year-old retired coal miner.
Dye said his daily trips yield a total of about three pounds of the root each harvesting season, which he sells to a dealer at a market in Paintsville for about $1,000.
Tony Ison, a Perry County ginseng dealer since 1980 who also sells other wild roots, including rattle weed and goldenseal, said he relies on the ability of diggers to identify mature roots.
"The dealers really need to get the diggers not to dig small roots," Ison said. "The Asians do not want small ginseng."
Private-property losses
Hart County Sheriff Jeff Staples said he has received complaints about ginseng theft, but it is difficult to catch poachers.
"Yes, we do have that problem, but so do a lot of rural counties," Staples said.
Staples said his department recently laid off eight deputies, leaving him with only four officers to patrol 410 square miles.
"If we got a call, by the time we got there, they'd be gone," he said.
Pike County Sheriff Charles "Fuzzy" Keesee chuckled when asked about ginseng.
