Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Peyote (photo: Luis J. Jimenez, Copley News Service)
An environmental group has accused the National Park Service (NPS) of violating its own rules when it comes to the illegal removal of native plants from national parks. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) claims park managers, with the blessing of NPS Director Jon Jarvis, are allowing Native Americans to take entire plants, roots or other plant parts from parks.
PEER came to this conclusion after reviewing park documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. PEER says the removal of native plants from parks has been forbidden since the first NPS rules were established in the 1930s.
Jarvis was quoted by PEER as telling a group of Cherokee officials in July that the rules were “just wrong,” and that he vowed to change them soon.
The current rules do make exceptions for plants that are used for religious purposes. In addition, some national parks have specific exceptions that allow local tribes to collect traditionally-used plants. However, many park managers have chosen to allow the removal of other plants in a botanical version of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Park Service Encourages Violation of Plant Removal Rules (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility)
Native American Plant Gathering in the National Park System (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) (pdf)
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