| Status and Management Issues |
Recommendations |
Status of ginseng on State lands – Currently, only six States implement some type of monitoring. Need a standardized monitoring protocol and funding mechanism to implement State monitoring programs. |
FWS-States to develop a standardized monitoring protocol that all 19 States can implement. Program-wide State monitoring may eventually reduce the FWS reporting requirements. |
| Age-based restrictions and possible alternatives: Discussed various options and restrictions (e.g., root diameter, root length, rhizome “neck” length), including the option of planting rhizomes versus keeping them attached to roots for aging purposes. |
Further evaluate approaches to regulating and monitoring ginseng harvest and trade. Need biological studies to determine viable and practical alternative methods to implement. |
| Production system categories – Do State definitions for wild and cultivated meet CITES definitions of wild and artificially propagated. Most States do not have definitions for wild-simulated or woodsgrown ginseng. |
Woodsgrown ginseng meets the CITES criteria for “artificially propagated” plants (Resolution Conf. 11.11 (Rev. CoP13)). Wild-simulated ginseng was defined as ginseng grown from non-local seed (e.g., cultivated seed) that is planted by humans in native habitat with minimal manipulation of the site. The definition of wild-simulated does not meet the CITES criteria for “artificially propagated” plants. The FWS is working within CITES on an intermediate category for plants that are not wild or artificially propagated. |
| State-level management – |
| Uniform program-wide harvest season. |
Impractical to standardize because of variability across the 19 States. Further evaluate establishing regional harvest seasons (e.g., south, central, and north). |
| Uniform program-wide selling/buying season. |
Further evaluate establishing a uniform start selling/buying date. |
| Law enforcement – States need to provide effective enforcement and sentencing of violators. |
Raise profile of law of enforcement efforts and sentencing problems to the State judiciary-level. Need to improve within State communication/coordination between regulatory and enforcement agencies. |
| Required State reporting –Information required by FWS. |
FWS to evaluate State reporting requirements. |
| Industry stakeholders – Need more integrity within the ginseng industry, and FWS-States need to work with industry. |
Work with the ginseng industry to actively promote best management and good stewardship practices within the industry. |
