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Samuel Hunter Burnette

Mrs. Lancaster
English IV H
November 19th 2016
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Wildlife, Plant and Fishery Poaching

One of the most overlooked topics in the United States and the world today is
Hunting. A Lot of people think that hunting only occurs in rural areas out in the country
and in the middle of the woods where no one is so that means it should not affect the
majority of people, right? Well that would be wrong, Humans and nature work Hand and
Hand together if one is at a disadvantage so is the other and if one is benefiting the other
may be suffering or benefiting. See hunting affects everyday people but hunting isn't the
bad part the bad part is poaching where the game is killed illegally or used in an improper
manner after it is dead. And the public needs to be informed on this topic to be aware of
what poaching is. President Theodore Roosevelt once said "There are no words that can
tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its
charm(U.S. Stories) the President of the United States of America one of the most
powerful men in the world believed that nature was a gift from God that should be

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preserved to its fullest beauty. Even though everyone does not participate in the
wonderful activities nature has to offer poaching still affects everyone in some way.
What is Poaching? Poaching is illegal taking of wildlife in violation of local,state,Federal
or international law. There is many forms of poaching that affects wildlife sometimes poaching
consist of killing an animal out of season or at night (Brooks 244.). Other cases may be hunting
without license or using the wrong type of gun such as a 30-30 to kill a Crow which is illegal
because a crow is a migrant bird which means the only type of gun allowed to be used to harvest
them would be a shotgun(U.S. Fish and Wildlife). It is not just killing big game like elephants
and selling their ivory there is many other crimes that are considered poaching. But the next
question is where does poaching occur? the answer to that is almost everywhere from New York
city USA to Weaverville NC or Hong Kong China to Cape Town South Africa. Poaching is
everywhere and that's why it affects everyone. Yes, people may say just because poaching is in
New York city does not mean it affects fashion designers or men on wall street but it does. When
the term poaching is referred to in new york city that does not mean someone is running through
time square shooting a deer it is things such as the black market and illegal selling of ginseng and
bears gallbladders, and all of this affects people's daily lives where this poaching occurs.
Since poaching occurs everywhere there has to be a valid reason why people poach,
there's a lot of ideas that could come to mind on why people poach but the most popular reason
of why people poach is for money. Money is the most popular motive for killing animals like
elephants for their ivory or black bears for their gallbladders or even digging ginseng in the
middle of summer out of season to make an extra buck before anyone else has the chance to. But
there is other
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reasons why people poach some are related to nothing but pure pleasure in killing an animal to
kill (The Humane Society). Other reasons could be justifiable morally such as a man supporting
a family on a low income in a mountain area has the chance to kill a deer out of season to feed
his family, this is a fair reason to kill a deer but it is still poaching. Here in the United States the
Federal state and local governments have put in place certain branches of law enforcement ,
researchers , biologist and ecologist to help protect the wildlife and keep the government
informed at each level. Within the Law enforcement branch there is multiple agencies that help
protect and enforce wildlife laws made by men and women in both state and federal legislature,
the US Fish and wildlife is the only federal agency under the department of interior put in place
specifically to uphold federal wildlife laws. At the state level there is state game wardens, here in
North Carolina there is a great team of wildlife officers broken down into 9 districts to help serve
and protect the wildlife all across the state(NC Fish and Wildlife). As mentioned before there is
laws or regulations made by both state and federal government some laws for North Carolina
would be where you can kill a black bear, what game lands are open to hunting and what lands
are closed due to being a bear Sanctuary. On the Other hand there is federal regulations like rules
on waterfowl hunting.
There is multiple case that supports the theory that poaching is becoming more of a
threat at the world wide spectrum and is a issue pressing and facing people in every walks of life.
The statistics of Rhino poaching since the year 2007 has increased by 7,700% to year 2014
(WWF). Last year in the great Smoky Mountains National Park officer Lamon Brown was on a
regular patrol when he spotted an unusual campsite in a non-camping zone as he approached he
noticed the
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campsite had trash disposed all around it and had an unprotected camp fire as he got closer he
spotted two men coming out from the tree line , he confronts them as any officer would and then
the two men had just become suspects after the officer seen their hand and arms were covered in
dirt and they had a digging stick with them. He asked both men politely to take off their bags
and first answer for why they were camping in this area since it is off limits , the men answered
we are simply camping Then the officer proceeded to take action and find out what was in
their bags after investigating the bag the officer soon determined that there was ginseng in their
bag and it is highly illegal to dig ginseng in a national park.After proceeding into investigation
the officer called for backup then when the officers arrived they charged the two suspects with 3
counts apiece of poaching on federal land considering they had 859 ginseng plants total.( Los
Angeles times). There is many more cases that affect poaching in the national parks from Hog,
Bear, Deer, Fish and many more but they endanger the species lives and existence. But luckily
there is organizations in place to help such as World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense
Council, The Sierra Club, and many more.(About Education) All of these organizations are
nonprofit and are only concerned about protecting the wildlife of the United States of America
and the World since this is a pressing issue facing society today. There is also clubs and groups
put in place by State Fish and Wildlife and also the Federal government to help species of north
america. Teddy Roosevelt once said "There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the
wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm."(www.nps.gov) he said this
one little line in hopes of America understanding the pure beauty that the wilderness has to offer
in North America . Mr.Roosevelt truly believed that the USA was on the greatest continent in the
World and he also believed the land should be preserved
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so future generation could view the land the way it once was because he understood that one day
the population would grow and the enjoyment for hunting would envy and soon this marvelous
land could be depleted and the beauty just fade away.
A study was conducted years ago to determine what animals were most targeted on the
North American continent and also at a Worldwide scale within this study Wildlife officers and
Biologists determined that animals are targeted by their geographical location in North America.
The United States of America is broken down into regions like Asheville NC is in the South East
but at the same time Asheville is in the Appalachian mountains. There is all kinds of Wildlife in
this area like Black Bear, Whitetail Deer , Beavers, Crows, Doves, Raccoons, Groundhogs,
Rattlesnakes, Copperheads, Bees, and many more species of Wildlife and fish. Here in the
Appalachian Mountains Black Bear is the most targeted Animal along with Native Trout . But
the most targeted specie is Ginseng the reason this is the most targeted item is because it is most
valuable in the black market.(US Fish and Wildlife) . According to the United States Intelligence
Agency the chinese and the people of Asia control the price on ginseng in the black market. On
a low day ginseng brings $695 a pound and then $1250. Ginseng is grinded up then made into
tea that brings a lot of money in asia. another sought after item in the appalachian mountains is
Black bear but what the black market wants in particular is the gallbladder of a bear. The reason
this is a sought after item in the wildlife Black market is because it brings good money . The
chinese use gallbladders to cook with and make native medicine that they believe helps their
health and fix any problems they might have. People may say hey what does making medican
have to do with

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poaching see it has a lot to do with hunters wanting to kill bear just for the money they bring
and not because they want to harvest the animal for food consumption.
Black bear are one of the most pulchritudinous animals in north america too look at and
take pictures of. The black bear are most common in the appalachian mountains and more
specifically in Western North Carolina.(Asheville citizen Times). The black bear arrived here in
the mountains way before the first settlers. The bear was use too living in the lowlands of
Western NC where there was more food and better weather but when the first settlers arrived in
the mountains it pushed the bear way up the mountains. One of the prodigious reasons the bear
did this was because they did not like humans mainly because they had never been around. But
in the past 100 or 50 years bear have started coming into cities where they can get into trash and
try to get food easier in today's time not everyone owns a gun so the bear are less threatened than
what they were 150 years ago when they would get shot at. The 4 considerable types of hunting
in North Carolina more than any other State is Black Bear , Coon, Deer, and duck.( NC Fish and
Wildlife). The two noticeable ones are Deer and Black bear . Black Bear are precisely popular
because people use dogs or hounds to hunt the bear the way you do this is 1) get a tracking collar
or GPS collar and put it on the dog 2) lead the dog to where a bear might be 3) turn the dogs lose
4) the dogs will tree the bear then a hunter goes in with a gun and kills it . Sometimes poachers
may kill the bear on property that is not theirs or maybe kill the bear and leave it there ,these are
immeasurable crimes that affect the survival of the animal. There is also other crimes that lead to
poaching before the animal is dead and that is when hunters will feed the bear illegally
sometimes the hunters may feed items like table scraps or donuts or even pure chocolate
obviously all bears love sweets like honey
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or chocolate. In the state of North Carolina it is highly illegal to feed anything besides natural
food like peanuts or even apples but no processed food like twinkies.
Although when most of the human population referrers to the word poaching horrifying
thoughts of animals being killed in a way not seen fit by man come to mind, however poaching
takes form in many more ways sadly to say many plants such as the Green Pitcher Plant, Swamp
Pink, and Mountain Sweet Pitcher are on the endangered species list due to the illegal harvesting
of these plants by black market participants taking these to inherit profit from the plants
beauty(Mentor from U.S. Fish and Wildlife). These three plants are only a small portion of a
large list of Plants, Animals and Fungi being poached in this Country and in the World. The
existence of these Plants is is a colossal factor in maintaining an equilibrium in an ecosystem.
Most Plants need common qualities to survive in their natural habitat food, water and shelter the
same as humans. Food for plants comes from the ground(soil) which is the first layer of the earth
which supports life know as the biosphere. Plants do not obtain water the way humans obtain it
plants strive from the part of the Water cycle called precipitation, plants absorb rain water that
has made contact with the biosphere by seeping the water through their roots which act like
channels to store water rich nutrients from the soil. Then their shelter is simply the habitat which
they live in. With all this being said many species can be poached by people polluting water
streams which run off into habitats of endangered plants which results in a careless act of
poaching .
As mentioned earlier the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has established a list of
species both Plants and Animals that are threatened and are also endangered. The two list are in
place to provide extra attention that needs to be shown to certain species that way they will not
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become extinct. Almost all these Animals and Plants that are on the endangered list or
Threatened list is due to poaching or the Plants and Animals are out competed within their
habitat .(Mentor United States Fish and Wildlife). In contrast it is pleasing to say there is some
species that are threatened or endangered because of nature and not man but however it is
disappointing to say Blight, Insects and Disease are some of the factors that threaten the
existence of some Animals, Plants and Trees. Within the category of poaching it is broken down
into a sub-component that kind-of goes along with the idea of pollution which is man made
problems which also includes the idea of humans spreading Non-Native Invasive Species and
releasing pets that can endanger a habitat. Almost everyone has had a pet at sometime, maybe a
dog, cat or hamster, but some people have exoitic pets such as a python this specise of Nonpoisonous snake was introduced to southern Florida or the everglades shortly after hurricane
Katrina. It is said to believe that one or two people had illegal pet snakes one male one female
that met after the hurricane when all the house and communities were damaged, As a result the
snakes used sexual reproduction and produced more pythons introduce a new invasive
competitor to Florida's everglades. Humans also interact in a negative way with nature and most
people do not realize what they are doing. The word landscape brings to mind pretty plants,
magnificent trees, beauteous mulch and peace and quiet within the beauty of your own land. So
often people take the word beauty to an extreme many plants such as Japanese Maple or
Japanese Spira are Non-Native Invasive Species that beat out certain populations of plants by
taking away soil nutrients that eventually leads to the Native Species being threatened
endangered or even worse Extent. Small acts that some people think are

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harmless such as something so little as making their flower bed look beautiful can lead to so
much destruction and non-intentional acts of poaching.
Men and Women all over this world value certain things possibly nice cars , houses, and
many more things that only exist for a small amount of time. The founding fathers of the United
States of America traveled far and worked hard to give America a better tomorrow and a
promising future. For life to be able to obtain pleasure man and nature must work together
because they both share the greatest land known this side of eternity. Possible poaching and
harmful effects on wildlife lead to the depletion of what God has given us to survive with. Billy
Graham once said God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give
with(Effects on the world article). There is good and bad in this world and it is up to the people
on how to abolish the bad and embrace the good. Even though everyone does not participate in
the wonderful activities nature has to offer poaching still affects everyone in some way.

Samuel H. Burnette

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Works Cited
Brooks, John L. Poaching. World Book. 2007 ed.
Detrick, Chloe. Anti-Poaching Bill passed by Congress. Humane Society.
15 October 2015. Web. 6 Nov 2015.
Grosz, Terry. Defending Our Wildlife Heritage. N.p. 2008.
Cameron Sue. Personal Interview.Bog turtle Poaching.United States Fish and Wildlife service.
22 August 2016.
Ten Defendants sentenced for illegal hunting activities and related offenses.
North Carolina wildlife Resources commission. 14 June 2013. Web 4 Nov. 2015.
Poaching. The Humane Society. 15 Aug 2015. Web. 6 Nov 2015.
Illegal Wildlife Trade US Fish and Wildlife. 2 July 2015.
Web. 6 Nov 2015
United States. National Park Service, National Park Service. "Theodore Roosevelt Quotes."
National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 15 Feb. 2015. Web. 27 Aug.
2016.