UT's Energy, Environment and Resources Center Presents 

Smoky Mountain

Resource Issues in Great Smoky Mountains National Park 

 SIGHTLINE

SPRING/SUMMER 2003
Vol. 4 No. 1

RAMPING DOWN

SITE LOCATOR MAPFOR GSMNP STORIES

HUMAN INTERACTION Elkmont in the Balance

WILDLIFE

INVASIONS

WATER

AIR

 ***

Editor: David Brill; Assistant Editor: Constance Griffith; Writers: Kris Christen, Lisa Byerley Gary, Elise LeQuire, Dennis McCarthy, and Becky Nichols. Graphic Designer: Lisa Byerley Gary.

SIGHTLINE is published on behalf of
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
by the
Energy, Environment and Resources Center (EERC)
at the
University of Tennessee.

EERC conducts research designed to promote real-world solutions to problems in the fields of energy, environment, technology, and economic development.

For additional information, write EERC, 311 Conference Center Building, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-4134, call 865-974-4251, or visit our Web site at http://eerc.ra.utk.edu.

SIGHTLINE is sponsored by:

Ramping Down When it comes to harvesting natural resources, including the ramp, Great Smoky Mountains National Park policy is clear: Look but don’t take. BY ELISE LEQUIRE

In the southern Appalachians, collecting ramps, one of the earliest edible wild plants to emerge in the spring, has a long tradition. In fact the practice dates back to presettlement times, when Native Americans prized this relative of the leek as a tonic, a cold remedy, and a poultice to ease the pain of bee stings.

In more recent years, Allium tricoccum, and its scarcer variant Allium burdickii, have been the focus of a relatively new tradition, ramp festivals, which are growing in popularity in areas adjacent to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the surrounding national forests. Ramps are also finding niche markets and appearing at roadside stands, in farmers markets, and on the menus of upscale restaurants across the United States. The demand for ramps, unfortunately, threatens to outstrip the supply, as collectors dig up whole plants, roots and all. In the best of conditions, ramps take a year and a half to germinate from seed and three to five years to produce a bulb.

A BUSHEL AND A PECK 

Within the boundaries of the Park, ramp collection for personal consumption of half a peck or less, about a grocery bag full, was tolerated until recently. Managers believed that harvesting such small quantities represented no threat to the sustainability of the species. Managers also believed the tradition would gradually wane. Instead, the commercial market for ramps continues to grow.

In the1980s, rangers began voicing concern that the more easily accessible sites were showing signs of damage. In 1992, one ranger found 400 plants in a single collector’s plastic grocery bag; large-scale poaching was taking an even greater toll. In April 1998, a ranger near the Greenbriar entrance to the Park apprehended two men hauling out two horse-feed sacks with 60 pounds of ramps apiece. According to Janet Rock, a National Park Service botanist who specializes in rare plant monitoring, the two bags contained nearly 1,600 ramps.

In 1989, Park managers asked Rock to design and implement a five-year study at three remote sites in the Park. This was the first actual harvest study of ramps in the United States. 

"When I started this study, I was breaking new ground," Rock says. The study was based on a model designed by researchers at the University of Quebec, who found that ramp populations are declining to extinction in southern Quebec, the northernmost range of the species. This information led to a ban on ramp harvesting in Gatineau Park.

Rock’s study was conducted at sites between 3,150 and 4,500 feet in forested coves with mixed hardwood canopy, the habitat in which the plant, a member of the Lily family, thrives. Five treatment levels of harvest were used at each test plot. The control was not harvested, while four other patches were harvested at the rates of 25, 50, 75, and 100 percent.

Results of the study showed that the ramp patch harvested just once at the lowest harvest rate of 25 percent did not recover during the term of study and that, even barring further harvesting, the patch would take more than 20 years to recover. Moreover, the collection in the experimental study consisted of plants of all sizes, whereas in actual harvesting conditions, collectors prefer the largest plants, making recovery even more unlikely. And in actual harvesting conditions, Park rangers have observed that collectors return year after year to the same sites, which are eventually decimated. This study confirmed that harvesting of ramps is not sustainable, that it should be discontinued in the Park, and that greater efforts should be made to monitor populations and enforce the ban.

As a result, the Park Service announced in 2002 that the Code of Federal Regulations, which bans harvesting or harming any natural resource in any national park, would be enforced. Ramps are to be protected in perpetuity, like all other plant and animal resources, under the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916. Rock says only fruits, nuts, and berries for personal consumption can be taken in the Park; any activity that injures a plant is not allowed.

Subject to review by the Park Service, however, collection of plant specimens, leaf fragments, or seeds for propagation and scientific research may be allowed. In 2002, 160 permits were issued for research projects, though none for ramps. "If someone applies to conduct research, we will evaluate the impact to the Park and its resources," says Keith Langdon, the Park’s branch chief of inventorying and monitoring. "We frown upon collection of whole plants instead of seed propagation but may allow it if it is limited in number and the results of the study contribute to the conservation of the species."

SHIFTING PRESSURE

Since the prohibition on ramp collection in the Park went into effect in 2002, pressure on ramp populations in the 1.6 million acres of national forests that surround the Park has increased.

"When the Smokies shut down ramp collection, it shifted over to the national forests," says Jim Chamberlain, a research scientist in nontimber forest sciences with the U.S. Forest Service. "I can show you evidence of more people digging on national forest lands," he says.

Chamberlain says the Forest Service is supportive of the groups that sponsor ramp festivals and wants to find ways to continue to support such activities on a sustainable basis. 

"You have to realize the inherent difference between the national forests and the national parks," he says. "The National Forest Service was established to provide a sustainable supply of products and to manage resources such as timber and water." 

The emphasis in recent years has switched, however, to other forest products of potential commercial value. Chamberlain says the national forests are taking the lead in finding ways to manage nontimber forest products such as ramps and medicinal herbs for sustainable harvest. (See "Nature’s Little Black Bag" on page 3.)

"With ramps, I’m looking at the relation between leaf width and bulb diameter, so we can look at the aboveground biomass and make some estimates about what’s below the ground," he says. "Second, we need to monitor the harvest activities, permitted and unpermitted, and take a more active approach in managing these resources and working with collectors."

The next step is for the agency to write a code of federal regulations and publish guidelines for implementing legislation to manage for nontimber forest products. "In the long term, we need to get to the point where we can cultivate and propagate these plants and manage the national forests to that end," Chamberlain says.

For more information, contact Janet Rock, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 1314 Cherokee Orchard Road, Gatlinburg, TN 37738, or call 865-430-4743.

Nature’s Little Black Bag

Though collection of medicinal herbs is strictly banned in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, commercial collection of plants in the wild, or wildcrafting, is on the rise and threatens to jeopardize the status of these plants, some of which are listed as endangered or threatened, on other federal lands.

Noting this trend, Katherine Karr Schlosser wrote in the Summer/Winter issue of North Carolina Wildflower Preservation Society’s newsletter: "Because of their commercial value, black cohosh and bloodroot face the same fate as that of Panax quinquefolius (American ginseng), which has been harvested to near extinction." (See "Ginseng’s Growing Pains," Sightline, Fall/Winter 1999).

Black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) was used by Native Americans to treat a variety of problems, from rattlesnake bite to pain in late pregnancy. Today, it is used as a substitute for synthetic hormone replacement therapy in menopausal women. Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) has been used to treat gingivitis, but it also contains a natural form of estrogen and is of interest to the cattle industry in Europe, where the use of synthetic hormones to fatten livestock is to be phased out by 2005.

The market, however, is volatile. The price of black cohosh, for example, dropped dramatically, from $16 to $20 a pound in 1996-1997 to only $3 a pound dry weight in 2000, and it can take 10 to 20 individual plants to make a pound, says Gary Kauffman, forest botanical products specialist for North Carolina’s national forests.

Kauffman says the Forest Service is just now beginning to model the habitat of 10 of the more than 2,000 vascular plants that occur in the southern Appalachians, including black cohosh, bloodroot, and ginseng—which coexist in rich cove forest habitat—in Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests. Harvest studies are also being conducted on black cohosh and bloodroot to determine the rate at which populations rebound after harvest. The ultimate goal is to determine what constitutes a sustainable harvest. "If you don’t know how much you have out there, you don’t know how much you can gather," Kauffman says.

Meanwhile, farmers seeking alternatives to traditional agricultural commodities are exploring the possibilities of growing medicinal herbs as a cash crop. This could help reduce pressure for wildcrafting on public lands, though Kauffman says it’s hard for a farmer to compete with wildcrafters, who have no overhead.

"We need to preserve and protect the tremendous diversity of native medicinal plants by learning how to cultivate them," says Jeanine M. Davis, associate professor and extension specialist in the department of horticultural science at North Carolina State University. "If one of these plants suddenly becomes a popular new herbal remedy, a lot of damage can happen very quickly to the native populations because cultivated sources are not available."

Davis, who also coordinates North Carolina’s Specialty Crops Program, says it is difficult to get farmers to produce medicinal herbs because no one knows how to propagate or grow them on a commercial scale. For example, we don’t even know how long it takes to grow a crop of bloodroot to a harvestable state. For many of these herbs, there are markets other than the botanical medicine industry, such as value-added nursery plants. Bloodroot, for example— one of the earliest blooming forest plants, with a delicate white blossom, golden stamens, and deep-green, veined leaves—can be attractively potted and sold at farmers markets and festivals, Davis says, for $3 to $5 a pot.

Unfortunately, much of the traditional knowledge of the medicinal properties of herbs has already been lost. Anecdotal accounts of the value of natural remedies, however, make it crucial to ensure their survival. "As time goes on, we will understand more about certain diseases and disorders and what kinds of compounds are needed to cure them," Davis says. "Plants may be the source of these compounds, and they could very well be growing in our forests. So it’s crucial to keep the native plant germplasm available for future studies, whether we end up taking the final product from the plant or synthesizing it. There is so much to be gained from our plant world."

Great Smoky Mountains Association celebrates 50 Years

Great Smoky Mountains Association (GSMA), a Sightline sponsor, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The organization was authorized by Congress in 1953 to support Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s scientific, educational, and historical efforts.

The organization, which boasts 4,300 members from 47 states, recently shortened its name from Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association.

Publications, including guidebooks and volumes on flora and fauna and mountain history and culture, are a mainstay of GSMA. The Association also produces numerous video and audio recordings that capture the sights, sounds, and music of the Smokies region. The organization achieves $5 million in annual sales through its books and other materials.

"In 1957, we produced our first book, Mountain Makin’s in the Smokies, an old cookbook," says Terry Maddox, GSMA executive director. "And that book is still on sale today."

GSMA funds cultural festivals, the Park library, the Mountain Farm Museum, the Institute at Tremont, and numerous scientific investigations, including the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory, which seeks to identify all species resident in the Park. Since 1953, GSMA funding for Park projects has totaled more than $10.6 million.

For more information, contact Great Smoky Mountains Association, 115 Park Headquarters Road, Gatlinburg, TN 37738, or call 865-436-7318. Visit the GSMA Web site at www.smokiesstore.org/index.htm.