Conservation: Collecting Plants in the Wild

Over-collection is now a serious threat to plants and habitat. Gardeners cannot be the only ones expected to respect and preserve plants and their habitats. Creeping civilization with ski-lifts, malls, overpopulation -- you know the list -- cause great despoliation on their own, but it is no use being apocalyptic about the end of the world soon to come. We gardeners must do what we can to save the environment.

A policy statement on conservation has been urged, even demanded, by many members for several years. A committee was formed and in a surprisingly short period presented such a statement. The committee was chose from among those who collect, from those who abhor those who collect, and from those in between. Don Jacobs chaired the committee, with members Joan Faust, Art Kruckeberg, Larry Mellichamp and Judy Sellers. We are grateful to them. The statement below was approved by the Board of Directors. We present it here for your guidance.

NARGS Policy Statement on Plant Collection

1. The NARGS is dedicated to understanding, preserving, growing, selecting, propagating, and appreciating the natural flora of the earth, especially those plants amenable to rock gardening.
2. Above all, we support efforts to protect wild habitats as the sources for genetic variations and naturally thriving plants for generations to come.

   We believe habitat destruction, both planned and accidental, is responsible for the greatest loss of habitats and species in the world today; and we deplore this situation.

   We strive to support those organizations around the world that seek to preserve valuable wildlife habitats, and we support field and media education as effective means of instilling respect for natural habitats.

3. We are against the wholesale collecting, for resale, of wild plants from public lands, especially the rarer plants, and abhor the practice of misleading the public by calling such collected plants nursery propagated by any stretch of the definition.
4. We support the practice of knowledgeable individuals collecting seeds, cuttings, or divisions of wild plants for the purposes of growing, studying, selecting, hybridizing, and ultimately propagating and distributing to other growers.

   We recognize that without experienced gardeners selecting and propagating species from the wild, there would be virtually no choice of garden plants as there is today.

   We would encourage collectors to be aware that rare plants merit special consideration and should not be distributed or propagules taken unless there is sufficient local stock to successfully perpetuate the population. In most cases this means minimal or no collecting.