Poached!

Last summer I photographed these amazing butterfly orchids growing in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Since the plants are fairly obvious to the knowledgeable observer as you drive by, I've kept an eye on them whenever I've been out there. Last time out, all that remained on the branch of the cedar tree were a handful of roots and scars in the bark. The orchids had been poached by someone who knows what wild orchids look like when they are not in bloom or by someone who had been waiting for the right moment.

Sad. Very sad.

Poaching of wild orchids has been a problem in Florida for many years; Susan Orlean wrote a book, Orchid Thief, about some infamous poachers of the ghost orchid, a very rare and hauntingly beautiful Florida wild orchid that grows only in swamps in the Everglades. (One very famous ghost orchid has been blooming along the Corkscrew Swamp boardwalk for the past few years; it's become popular with photographers and orchid enthusiasts, alike.) And in 2006, a Nancy Drew mystery covered the same topic.

The sale of wild orchids is illegal, but it's difficult to prove whether a particular specimen offered for sale was taken from the wild or grown from seed.

Maybe the person who took these orchids is just an ass who wanted to keep them all to him/herself and doesn't have an interest in propagating and selling the orchid. Whatever. I'm pissed off. This is the sort of behavior that causes access to wilderness areas to be "closed to the public."

Anyway . . . what's my point? Well, if you're reading this blog, you love nature, probably, as much as I do. Consider it your duty to keep a watchful eye on things as you hike, or bike, or walk, or meander through the wild. If you see something suspicious--someone digging through the dirt or picking flowers or ripping orchids off a tree--report it to a park ranger! Immediately.