Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/21/man-faces-450-years-in-prison.html
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I hope he sees a long sentence. Because this is how they became threatened, and this is how we get extinction.
Regarding developers mowing them down or plowing them under, at least here in Minnesota you can get a license to take cypripedium reginae (showy lady’s slippers) from ditches in advance of roadwork or development. A private landowner can grant permission to take protected plants from his or her lands. However, they can only be sold with permission of the DNR.
I wanted to buy one once, but the growing conditions are extremely specialized, and most people can’t replicate it. And make one mistake and that 10-year-old weed is dead.
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Section 9 of the Federal ESA takes a very hands-off approach to threatened/endangered species of plants. It’s entirely up to the states about how to address endangered plants on private land. In order to get this passed, and make it workable, there was no way to get rural states on board about protecting plants on private land, especially given how extensive the term “take” is under the Act.
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I heard about Venus Flytrap poaching some months ago on the “Criminal” podcast. Worth a listen!
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Obligatory
On a serious note, does anyone know anyone who has kept one of these plants alive in a North American home? They die like school fair goldfish.
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What was Manafort sentenced to, again?
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I’m pretty sure we could find some punitive measure serious enough to act as a deterrent that was still within the range of a single human lifetime.
Maybe make him spend the next months/years of his life working on some kind of environmental restoration project.
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I’ve kept one for a few years, but they are a bit finicky. They don’t like tap water (we have super-hard water). Mine was outside and in the dry season I watered it with purified water.
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As far as developers potentially destroying the plants on private land, there definitely needs to be more done though i would be still concerned over the plants even if they were left alone by the developers. Odds are people would more easily target those plants, or damage them since they’re on private property.
Here in Austin it’s built into the city code that native trees must not be even be trimmed without the express consent of a city arborist regardless if its on private or public land. It’s a pain in the ass for developers, however if someone has enough money to spend they can just take the fine and get rid of all the trees. The city will then require them to replant X number of native plants, which is usually much easier than moving large existing trees. It doesn’t happen often but it does occur.
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See, there’s this guy’s mistake. If only he’d laundered millions of dirty dollars and poached Venus Flytraps.
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To anyone planning on acquiring/growing Venus Flytraps: For me… it was a learning experience. Many years ago I purchased VFs from a nursery in Santa Clarita, CA. These babies require shaded/light sunlight and (very important) a humid environment. As I learned (the hard way) a terrarium is a must.
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I don’t really have much respect for people who, while they value nature highly, make an exception in valuing a man’s life very little.
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Cleaning up kudzu–since he’s so good at digging up plants and all.
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Kind of where my mind went here as well.
NC has a murderous white supremacist problem, but this guy is getting 450 years for poaching plants?
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My experience with them is that you can definitely make the environment they’re in too humid. Another point of interest, random bugs that are sourced from the outside have the potential to have harmful chemicals on them (weedkiller, pesticides, etc) and may do harm to whatever you’re feeding those insects to. Learned this the hard way after a pet tarantula went blind and slowly died after eating a bug we had fed it from the backyard.
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On that, Roundup promotors would concede – if at all – that only tarantulas could be harmed in such a way… and that’s only if their opening “well…you should have washed your hands first” gambit didn’t fly.
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and been a whiter shade of rehabilitatable.
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Manafort could face up to 24 years in prison, sources say…
A little more detail: https://portcitydaily.com/local-news/2019/03/21/why-isnt-it-illegal-when-developers-destroy-venus-flytraps-and-other-reader-questions/
I hate articles that just include the maximum multiplied by the number of counts (although the minimum in this case is a little ridiculous). It’s a cheap shock tactic. And it leads to comment threads like this.
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Anyone know the market being served by the poacher? Homebake quack cancer cure? Plant collectors? Little-Shop-of-Horrors fans?
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