On a shady, east-facing slope on the Allegheny National Forest grows an ancient plant with an uncertain future.
American ginseng, a forest plant native to the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada, is renowned globally for its medicinal properties and capable of fetching $1,000 per pound of its gnarled roots.
But a long-term lack of sustainable harvesting and extensive poaching has led to ginseng gaining protected status in a number of states, including Pennsylvania.
In response to ginseng’s decline, the Commonwealth’s 2013-14 harvest season has been shortened in an attempt to “protect the species,” according to the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).
Ginseng harvesting is currently banned on the Allegheny for the same reason, according to reports.
While the plant carries a hefty price tag, licenses cost the roughly 30 dealers registered with DCNR a mere $50 per year and only apply to buying and selling of ginseng, according to Chris Firestone, a DCNR botanist in charge of crafting Pennsylvania’s ginseng regulations. Additionally, harvesting ginseng while prohibited on state owned lands is unregulated on the 70 percent of state lands with private ownership, only requiring landowner permission.
With no limits on the amount harvested, only the collection season, and few means of enforcing responsible stewardship, Firestone said the potential exists for over harvesting.
“Many people don’t realize what the regulations are, many think ‘I’m going to get a lot of money for a pound’ and want to take all they can right away,” Firestone said. “There is potential for taking an entire population, taking them to young and failing to plant seeds.”
DCNR requires harvesters of ginseng — also known as pickers or “diggers” — follow plant maturity guidelines and re-deposit seeds belonging to harvested plants on-site.
This year’s shortened ginseng harvest season marks the first such review of ginseng-based regulation since 1985, according to Firestone.
Eric Burkhart, Ph.D., faculty instructor of the ecosystem science and management department and plant science program director at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center with Penn State, has dedicated much of his life to the study of American ginseng and its global demand.
Through funding from state grants and conservation license plate programs, Burkhart studies the ginseng industry and effectiveness, or lack thereof, of state regulation, maintaining a direct line of communication with regulators like Firestone.
Federal and international trade law requires some semblance of a state regulatory system for plants collected for medicinal purposes, but Burkhart calls it an unfunded mandate with no dedicated financial support.
Burkhart has spent years learning the ins-and-outs of the American ginseng industry. He describes it as a secretive subculture, under-regulated and tainted by an emerging criminal element, namely poachers motivated by the plant’s steep price and seemingly endless demand. Burkhart estimates anywhere between 700 to 1,400 individuals involved in Pennsylvania’s ginseng industry.
Due to the inconsistent self-reporting practices of those members the exact amount and extent of harvestable ginseng in Pennsylvania remains unknown.
“It’s a widespread plant, it’s out there if you know where to look but it’s not abundant to the point that it’s in trouble now,” Burkhart said.
Renowned as an herbal medicine in Asia, and “Chi Tonic” in China, sales of wild ginseng or “sang” typically earn sellers between $400 and $1,000 per pound, or roughly 200 roots, although Burkhart has seen a single ginseng root sold for as much as $220,000.
Commercial ginseng harvests found in Canada, China and the Midwest use artificial shade and pesticides in providing a mass produced product to buyers less concerned with provenance, namely for use in herbal supplements and soft drinks containing a “ginseng boost.”
Asian practitioners apply added cultural significance to wild ginseng and the notion of “the traditional plant coming form its homeland and its forests,” Burkhart said.
Combined with a dwindling supply due to over harvesting and loss of forest lands, the price of wild ginseng is only getting higher.
The plant’s slow maturity, a minimum of five years from seed to harvest, has deterred most would-be growers and inspired a culture of “ginseng diggers,” who wander the woodlands in search of the plant.
With 70 percent of Pennsylvania state forests privately owned, often requiring diggers to obtain permission from the landowner, there are those who choose to operate outside the lines.
For many, poaching has come to define the ginseng industry. Burkhart blames reality television shows on the subject including The History Channel’s “Appalachian Outlaws,” which he said serve to glorify theft.
“The whole punch line of the show is how people get away with poaching ginseng on state and federal lands and it’s really kind of putting a lot of pressure on the plant already,” Burkhart said.
Burkhart attributes the popularity of shows like it to an uptick in ginseng licenses. This year, in just two months, DCNR has gathered 17 more licenses than the annual average.
“These are people who are clearly not knowledgeable about what they are doing, they make no bones about that. They tell DCNR (the state’s license issuing authority) that they’re in it to make some money and they don’t really know much about it, but they need a license,” Burkhart said. “It’s going to create an issue … I deal with a lot of people growing this stuff on forest lands and they already deal with pretty stiff competition from poachers.”
Burkhart said this “competition” sometimes results in deadly confrontations.
In 2013, a 78-year-old Ohio man was convicted of manslaughter after fatally shooting a trespasser on his property, reportedly after his ginseng crop.
“It’s no different than someone coming into your home and stealing all of your electronics — it’s that valuable,” Burkhart said. “At least once a year we hear these stories coming out of West Virginia and Kentucky.”
Burkhart advocates for laws protecting landowners and ginseng growers from poachers and for law enforcement to take the threat seriously.
“Ginseng theft is a lot easier than robbing a bank or convenience store. Chances are you aren’t going to get caught and if you do get caught you’re going to get off with a slap on the wrist,” Burkhart said.
The solution may be as simple as a lesson in agro-forestry.
Burkhart suggests plots of ginseng plants grown on forest land and tended by locals looking to make some supplemental income.
It would flood the market with a consistent, cheaper supply of comparable “wild simulated ginseng,” thereby stabilizing supply, prices and alleviate pressure on wild populations while rendering poachers obsolete.
He calls it “conservation through cultivation” and hopes to present a more complete proposal to DCNR officials in the future.
Burkhart imagines ginseng’s future as a niche industry like maple syrup production in Pennsylvania.
“Using the natural forest lands we can eliminate some of the costs. We can take pressure off wild ginseng by providing an analog — an exact replacing of the product that the Chinese want — and there’s this emerging market, as I said, here domestically for this type of product,” Burkhart said, suggesting a labeling program similar to “certified organic” to ensure the source.
