permaculture

["Ava Devenport" <essenheal@iname.com>]

Emily,

You are absolutely correct regarding plants that are disappearing due to 
unethical wildcrafting, changes in the eco-system and chemical poisoning.

With all of the renewed interest in natural health and herbal supplements, 
wild plant gathering has been a boon to some of those seeking to gain cash 
without regard to balance.  There are many non-profit organizations out 
there that have a mission to help return and save native plants that are 
considered 'at-risk' and endangered.  Plus there are many good guidelines 
to 'ethical wildcrafting'.  One of the best that I know of is United Plant 
Savers.  They have a website at   www.plantsavers.org  the newsletter is 
on-line and they have many good areas of concern, one of them 'ethical 
wildcrafting' which outlines good practices concerning wildcrafting, 
although their biggest mission is to try to get concerned individuals to 
cultivate these disappearing medicnal herbs that have been at our beck and 
call for so many centuries.  They also have instituted Community Action 
Teams for support to those who are actively trying to save the plants from 
areas such as re-development and new development.  Believe it or not, there 
may be many laws AGAINST removing plants from personal and public property, 
but not many yet protecting the plants themselves, although there are some 
states making headway in this aspect also.  You have to obtain a permit and 
permission to remove plants from an area that is going to be subsidized (or 
you're considered a thief, or committing property damage) but it is not 
unlawful for a development company to go onto their own property and raze 
these plants with bulldozers.

Please, anyone who has even the slightest interest in the future of our 
native plants, stop by UpS website, get a community Action team together.  
It's only good for us, our future generations and the world at large.  
Don't just think about, we're losing thousands of plants EVERY SINGLE DAY.  
Cultivate, reforest, do it, don't wait for someone else to do it, make a 
real difference, our future is at stake!

"It is a bad remedy when something of nature perishes" - Publilius Syrus 
(60-120 A.D.)

And please remember, gather your seeds, save some and share the the rest!

Blessings,
Ava

P.S.  All of the plant materials I use, have been cultivated by my hands, 
never taken from the wild!