Disappointing news from a highly respected public garden

[Mr Stay Puft]

It is my sad duty to report that some scumbags out there have been harvesting Acacia maidenii bark off a specimen tree in a public gardens. I have many friends who work in these gardens and put blood, sweat and tears into the maintenance and upkeep of these gardens for public enjoyment.

The last thing they want to see is large strips of bark removed from an extremely old specimen of a tree... i think the worst things is that they know what people are doing with this bark...

I hope the people responsible read this post and may you have a very bad trip when utilizing this bark harvested in such a disgusting way...

Its a shame that people are so low...

[Legba]

have a very bad trip when utilizing this bark

You would think they will.

Before you get any worthwhile help from plants, first you have to learn how to respect them.

[gerbil]

this is new stripping i take it?

If it's the few trees i know in public spaces they have already been stripped a few times, but more it seems?

It's a frustration of this society, banging ya head into a wall sorta thing.

Bit of meeting half way can do wonders, but inevitably will only really content one or two peoples desires at a time and over time the occurance being very infrequent, but if the staff could work with interested individuals giving arborist offcuts it could partially avoid this in the future, but in no way fully. But then again, the people who would ask and wait for the offcuts will be the people who ask and wait for the offcuts and the people who will strip no matter what will probably still strip no matter what.

A part of it that frustrates me is that the actions of a few individuals create even a bigger divide between the people who would like to legitimately communicate with the staff.

[hebrew]

i am guessing this is the large tree near the city, what a shame in the past i have seen strips of bark removed from the tree and that has always upset me, especially since that large tree is such an old thing. am i right to say that maidenii doesnt even yield that much

what the fuck is wrong with people, shame job on those people i hope it is noone here at the forum.

sad to hear this news

[Neoshaman]

i am guessing this is the large tree near the city, what a shame in the past i have seen strips of bark removed from the tree and that has always upset me, especially since that large tree is such an old thing. am i right to say that maidenii doesnt even yield that much

what the fuck is wrong with people, shame job on those people i hope it is noone here at the forum.

sad to hear this news

Its a real shame as what there doing it for can be obtained from other varities from leaves that have already fallen off the trees apparently it is retained for sometime further to that get some seeds and grow the plant yourselves fucking wankers yes it takes time but i sure if you can find the right varities and are willing to put the time and effort in the results will feel much more rewarding stripping a specimen like this is so fucking selfish I hope your efforts have resulted in nothing viable as fuckwits like this really don't deserve the enjoyment of such a plant.

[Mr Stay Puft]

This is recent activity and i also hope it is noone here at these forums... if it is i would hope that reading this thread may make you think twice... public gardens are not for individuals but for the entire community to share and the stripping of bark is extremely damaging to the aesthetics and the health of the tree in question...

It would be extremely disappointing to see an old specimen such as this destroyed by 'trippers' with no self conscious....

It is not the first time this garden has been subject to damage for similar reasons... Many cacti species have been damaged and even stolen from the cacti house...

It is very very sad.

Edited February 7, 2009 by Mr Stay Puft

[~shameless~]

Pretty sad!!, probably stripped it cause a friend of a friend (fiend?) said "hey that tree has this..... and does that"

Maybe put a sign up that says area under 24 hr security watch or something,

And about the cactus, thats just as tight as well,

Thieves grow your own, but then again these sort probably couldnt really give a rats arse about botany or

horticulture. They get more out of the thrill of stealing something.

[Yawning Man]

These people are obviously just dickheads. No planthead would do that. And good idea about signs saying 24hour surveillance, visual deterrents.

If these people want a high then grow your own fucking Maidenii. It might take a good few years but in that time you will have established a connection with your plants and in return they will allow you to take their bark.

What annoys me is they're probably at home right now saying "duuuhh how do we get da good shit from this stuff"? Then they'll come on Sab and ask they stupidest questions they could easily answer themselves by doing a bit of reading.

I hope they get raped by demons when they smoke.

cheers

[Mr Stay Puft]

Unfortunately signs are not a deterrent... i speak from first hand experience here. A certain cactus garden has signs and even the odd camera in place and this hasn't deterred people from coming in in the middle of the day and 'harvesting'.

I think the only option is to try and educate these people.... maybe they think noone notices?

I would say with a fair bit of certainty that the people involved would have at least once browsed these forums... maybe if they realized that it actually hurts people and produces a negative view of our communities they might think twice about taking from these places in the future...

If any people involved in questionable harvesting read a thread such as this i encourage them to think about their actions... think about the victims and also think about the damage they are doing to what are living libraries... plants such as this acacia are irreplaceable...

[incognito]

ahh DMT heads are sooo highly evolved and concious, i bet they where doing it for the good of the planet and he survival of the human species

[AndyAmine.]

If they put as much effort and time into researching the harvesting as they do the extraction we can only assume they will end up smoking a big fat pipe full of NaOH as a reward for their efforts

[Mycot]

This type of greed is disgraceful how it reflects on the ethnobotanical community and I have seen several instances of it.

I also know of an extraction on 20 kilo's of Maidenii bark and they got absalutely nothing. What a stupid f#*king waste.

Many if not most strains of Maidenii are low in alkaloid content and seed collecting efforts should be made for the rare high alkaloid strains.

For this reason the probability is that these persons efforts are likely wasted. If its a good strain then the phyllodes are just as good.

[sharxx101]

I know of a guy who took some bark off the old madenii at the gardens and he is a complete fuck head, I told him of the damage he was doing to the tree from being an absolute dick head. I second you Mr. Puft anyone who is dump enough to break into the gardens, should be shoot I will glady protect the tree if they setup a nice little cottage for me .

Please everyone respect trees without them we would be choking on our poluted air. Love every plant even if its not yours!!!

[sharxx101]

This type of greed is disgraceful how it reflects on the ethnobotanical community and I have seen several instances of it.

I also know of an extraction on 20 kilo's of Maidenii bark and they got absalutely nothing. What a stupid f#*king waste.

Many if not most strains of Maidenii are low in alkaloid content and seed collecting efforts should be made for the rare high alkaloid strains.

For this reason the probability is that these persons efforts are likely wasted. If its a good strain then the phyllodes are just as good.

You are right mycot people like this make all of us look bad and like we will steal some bark for a very old tree to get off our heads, this is not so for most of the community. To the people that took the bark I hope you have learnt your lesson and never do it again!!!

[cisumevil]

I know of a guy who took some bark off the old madenii at the gardens and he is a complete fuck head, I told him of the damage he was doing to the tree from being an absolute dick head. I second you Mr. Puft anyone who is dump enough to break into the gardens, should be shoot I will glady protect the tree if they setup a nice little cottage for me .

Please everyone respect trees without them we would be choking on our poluted air. Love every plant even if its not yours!!!

So sharxx101 why dont you give the Bot Gardens staff this persons name & address & let them charge this idiot with every law they can throw at him?

[reshroomED]

You'd be surprised at what some forum members find acceptable in this regard. Do a search on acacia bark here, a heated argument about this usually erupts every year or so.

Unfortunately the chemical we all talk of, which can offer such insights, also seems to turn certain people into some sort of evangelical drug-guru off on a god-given mission to alleviate the suffering of the masses via it's distribution (with or without $).

The prevailing 'logic' they use is that the end justifies the means ie: it's worth killing 'x' amount of trees as long as a reasonable amount of end product can be extracted and given to 'x' amount of people, thus 'awakening' more of us dozing mortals and furthering the cause.

The repeatedly pointed out fact that this can be done with little/no tree-damage falls on deaf ears, but that's what you get when you are silly enough to argue with a zealot.

ed