Leave the Beauty for Others to Enjoy
Spring is coming and signs of plants preparing to bloom are popping out all around us. Soon wildflowers will be in their full pageantry and beauty for all to behold. There is nothing like the pleasurable sense of surprise when you find colorful wildflowers blooming along a mountain trail or stream. Unfortunately these spectacular displays of color need protection so future generations will be able to enjoy them.
Many wildflowers and plants are threatened by man. Not only does air quality and disappearing habitat destroy plant populations, the greed of man also shares the responsibility. Many plants in the Southern Appalachian Mountains are collected by people ranging from well meaning visitors who want a few flowers for their table to professional plant poachers stealing plants to sell for profit.
For the occasional visitor who picks wildflowers they do not understand that they are being greedy not leaving the display for others to enjoy. When flowers in bloom are taken, they do not have the opportunity to leave seed to establish future generations of blooms. In a park like the Blue Ridge Parkway – the most visited National Park Service unit in the system – where more than 16 million people visit per year, casual flower picking can have a devastating impact on plant populations. Many times this explains why visitors return one or more years later trying to recapture the excitement of finding a wildflower display at a certain location and it is no longer there.
As you visit the parks of the Southern Appalachians this year, be part of the solution and help to protect our native plants.
- Do not pick wildflowers – Take photos and leave the plants where they can continue to grow and produce seed
- If you see others digging or removing plants within the park – notify a Park Ranger as soon as possible – on the Blue Ridge Parkway you can call 800-PARKWATCH to make a report
- Educate your friends and family members to leave plants where they observe them
Help the National Park Service to preserve and protect our natural heritage for future generations.
You can learn more about the problems with commercial theft of plants in the Southern Appalachians in my book A Park Ranger’s Life: Thirty Two Years Protecting Our National Parks.
Just as the National Park Service is charged with the trust of preserving our natural treasures for future generations, each of us has a part to play. They can’t do it without our help, and our first and primary responsibility is for us to police ourselves. It’s time we let go of the selfishness of carelessly tossing trash along the road and think about the impact that it has on future visitors. It’s time we stopped taking shortcuts instead of following switchbacks on the hiking trail, and realize that our moment of “doing our own thing” contributes to erosion. It’s time we appreciate flowers and other plants for their beauty where they are, and leave them there for the next visitor. It’s time to stop thinking just of ourselves, but of how our actions will impact others. Not just in our parks, but in life in general. The world would be a much better place if we were a little less selfish and a lot more “other-oriented.” We can’t determine the actions of others but we can monitor ourselves.
Stan Horst
Owner: CabinCreekwood.com