It’s a good year for saw palmetto berries

Mary Landers, The Present

There’s a bumper crop of noticed palmetto berries this yr in southeastern Georgia. And that’s led to a bumper crop of berry poachers.

The berries, which seem like olives, are utilized in dietary supplements presupposed to deal with hair loss and prostate issues, amongst different maladies. Globally, noticed palmetto berries are a $150 million enterprise. They develop naturally in 14 counties of Southeast Georgia and are picked by hand off the low-growing bushes. As of late August, the Georgia Forestry Fee has obtained 50 complaints about berry poachers. 

In response, the fee and native regulation enforcement businesses have issued 17 warrants, stated fee spokeswoman Wendy Burnett, who additionally wrote concerning the difficulty in a latest weblog.

Throughout a high-yield crop season like this one, illegally harvested berries have been estimated for a lack of $500,000 to landowners. A Georgia regulation handed in 2020 requires correct documentation, together with written permission from the landowner, for the berries to be offered. 

Based on a fee investigator, landowners usually don’t discover the thefts till their property has been picked clear. Unlawful harvesters function day and night time and could also be harmful if confronted. The fee urges landowners to report unauthorized exercise to native regulation enforcement or the GFC.

“Theft by taking” of illegally harvested palmetto berries valued underneath $1,500 is a misdemeanor and is a felony if over $1,500.

Noticed palmetto (Serenoa repens) is salt resistant and grows in all of the coastal counties. Native Individuals used the plant for meals, drugs and basket making, the U.S. Division of Agriculture experiences, indicating “the Tequesta, Creek, Miccosukee, and Seminole gathered and ate the berries in late summer time or fall.”

Loads of animals additionally depend upon noticed palmettos for meals, shelter or each. A 1996 research indicated noticed palmetto is a keystone species in Florida the place researchers discovered 100 hen species, 27 mammals, 25 amphibians, 61 reptiles and a number of bugs depend on it.

Public lands together with Dixon Memorial State Forest in Ware County, the positioning of analysis on palmetto berry manufacturing, and the Okefenokee Nationwide Wildlife Refuge have had issues with unlawful harvests in previous years. 

“Actually that’s an issue that individuals have,” Burnett stated. “A few of that perhaps is a false impression that if it’s a public forest, you may go on and you may take issues out.” 

Harvest is mostly prohibited on public land and solely authorized with the landowner’s written permission on non-public land. 

This story involves GPB by way of a reporting partnership with Georgia Recorder.