Supes mull support for poaching bill
Proposal would ban succulent theft from public lands
Three years ago during a state Fish and Wildlife investigation, officers found a trio of people with 2,300 rare Dudleya plants that were removed from Humboldt Lagoons State Park.
At that time, it was not illegal to remove the plants. But it could be if a bill by San Diego-based Assemblyman Chris Ward is approved by the Legislature.
Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson is proposing the board send a letter of support for the bill to Ward.
“As you are aware, a group in Humboldt County recently was caught with 2300 plants,” the letter states. “This kind of loss could be catastrophic, especially since 10% of Dudleya are already listed as threatened or endangered by the state and federal government. Illegal poaching further compounds these threats and puts many species of Dudleya at an elevated risk of extinction.”
If passed, Assembly Bill 223 would establish fines for removal or harvesting of Dudleya from state or local government-owned land or on property that is not one’s own. The bill also bans the sale of Dudleya plants that were illegally removed. Fines for the first offense start at $5,000 per plant and can go as high as $40,000 per plant for later offenses.
The plants can sell for $50 to $80 each for small plants and larger ones can sell for as much as $1,000, according to a fact sheet from Ward’s office.
“Poachers have the potential to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit from Dudleya harvested in California,” the fact sheet states. “While the courts have been creative in penalizing poachers, the fine amounts that
can be levied are minuscule when compared to the amount of money poachers can make selling the plants on the black market.”
Ward said the penalties in AB 223 are in line with recently passed legislation on ivory and shark fin poaching.
In the case with the Humboldt County poachers, a local judge suspended three-year prison sentences, “with the conditions that the defendants are prohibited from entering the United States without prior authorization of the federal government and state courts, and prohibited from entering any local, state or national park,” said a news release from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife The poachers were from China and Korea.
The three also had to forfeit $10,200 in cash that was found with the plants and each was fined $10,000, which would be exponentially higher had the proposed legislation been in place.
The supervisors will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning. The item is on the consent calendar, which typically is voted on in one action.