The Pacolet Area Conservancy (PAC) and Walnut Creek Preserve (WCP) invite the public to attend a free program about “Monitoring large-scale plant poaching on the Blue Ridge Parkway,” presented by National Park Service Ecologist Nora Murdock. The program will be held at the Anne Elizabeth Suratt Nature Center at Walnut Creek Preserve on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 10:30 a.m.

The Southern Appalachian Mountains are well known for their extraordinary diversity of plant life, including many native medicinal herbs, as well as species that are in demand by collectors and for the floral industry. Federal land-managing agencies (National Park Service, US Forest Service) operate under different legal mandates, with the National Forests allowing controlled commercial harvest of some plants, and the National Parks not allowing such harvest.

However, all land managers are working to maintain viable populations of native plants. Managers and biologists from many agencies are expressing concern over the increasing level of harvesting (and poaching) occurring on public lands. Some of these plants do not recover quickly (or at all) from intensive harvesting, and are being eliminated from habitats that are accessible to poachers. In the National Parks, poachers are penetrating deeper into the most remote backcountry, as more accessible populations of target species are disappearing.

The illegal harvesting of plants on a commercial scale for the herbal remedy and floral markets is of growing concern along the Blue Ridge Parkway, where individual poachers have been intercepted leaving the park with tens of thousands of plants, taken for sale in markets throughout the United States, as well as for export to international markets. The species that appear to be most threatened by poaching at present are ginseng, black cohosh, trilliums, bloodroot, and a rare form of galax that grows only in a narrow band along the southern Blue Ridge Escarpment.

To get to Walnut Creek Preserve’s Nature Center from the Tryon and Columbus area, take Hwy 108 E and turn left on Hwy 9 toward Lake Lure. Follow Hwy 9 N for 5 miles and turn right onto McGuinn Road (at the Exxon Station).

Go 1 mile to the intersection with Big Level Road; turn left, go 2/10ths of a mile and take the first right onto Aden Green Road.

Follow Aden Green for 4/10ths of a mile and turn left on Herbarium Lane and into Walnut Creek Preserve. Take the first left onto Conservatory Lane, which takes you to the parking area for the nature center.

For more information or directions from another location, contact the Pacolet Area Conservancy at 828-859-5060 or e-mail landprotection@pacolet.org.

Please note, Walnut Creek Preserve is private property and guests are only allowed on the property by invitation (a planned event or scheduled group).

– article submitted by Pam Torlina