Root Cause

Why Canadian law enforcement is cracking down on poachers stealing wild ginseng

- Gloria Dickie

IN SEPTEMBER 2013, two conservation officers with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry were waiting along a dirt road in rural south-central Ontario for the poachers to emerge from the forest.

The previous summer, wildlife-enforcement agents patrolling the area had stumbled upon a patch of wild American ginseng after noticing shallow holes pockmarking the ground next to discarded plants with their roots torn off. In some spots, though, the stems and leaves had been neatly tucked back into the soil, as if to cover up the massacre. Some of the plants were now the standing dead. Nearby, the officers noticed a clue: lying face-up on the forest floor, half-shaded by sugar maples, the red of an empty pack of DK’s cigarettes flickered in the scattered sunlight.

Federal and provincial authorities launched an operation to catch the poachers. Jean-François Dubois, a federal wildlife-enforcement officer, had motion-sensor surveillance cameras installed. He also dispatched patrols and marked the roots with an ultraviolet, traceable dye. Then two officers on their regular patrol got lucky. They spotted a truck parked about two kilometers from the poaching site with a pack of DK’s lying on the seat. It wasn’t long before Michael Allison and Russell Jacobs hiked out of the trees carrying 253 ginseng roots that could have fetched tens of thousands of dollars.