Kilsyth is launchpad for
national campaign

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From the Cumbernauld News
and Kilsyth Chronicle

Report: Jill Hepburn:

   Kilsyth's Colzium Estate was the venue
for the launch of a national campaign to
save Scotland's plants.

   Garden favourites like bluebells and
snowdrops are being removed in dangerous
quantities from the wild. So is the rare
Scottish primrose, and sphagnum moss,
which forms the top layer on many protected
raised bogs, is being taken illegally
to fill hanging baskets and Christmas wreaths.
   The trade in stolen plants is widespread,
often involving criminal gangs. In one case,
a digger was used to collect topsoil.
   Children from Balmalloch Primary
School in Kilsyth were recruited to help
launch the initiative at a noted bluebell wood
at Colzium.
   The public awareness campaign, Stolen
from the Wild, is being spearheaded by
The Partnership for Action Against
Wildlife Crime, led by Scottish Natural
Heritage, Plantlife (a group dedicated to
saving Scotland's wild flowers), and
Strathclyde Police.
   Postcards of bluebells, with the message,
Stolen from the Wild have been produced,
aimed at the general public, particularly
gardeners, and will be distributed to the
offices of conservation organisations, public
visitor centres, and garden centres. In the longer
term it is hoped guidelines will be developed
with garden centres to ensure that products
are bought from sustainable sources.
   John Ralston of Scottish Natural Heritage
said: "People buying plants and hanging baskets
for their gardens should be aware that they could
be buying products which have been taken illegally
or which are damaging the environment.
   Many species such as sphagnum moss are
are being plundered in large quantities by
commercial pickers to fuel this trade.
We want people to ask more questions about
the source of these plants and to encourage the
development of a sustainable plant industry."
   In one case of spahagnum moss gathering in
South Lanarkshire £34,000- worth of damage
was caused as fences were demolished and
trees knocked down.

   A vanload of snowdrop bulbs seized in
Fife had a retail value of £60,000.

   Phil Briggs, wildlife liaison officer for
Strathclyde Police, said : "We have uncovered
several cases of large scale sphagnum moss
and bluebell bulb collection on Lanarkshire,
often carried out by organised criminal gangs,
who sell onto the gardening trade. Because
of the remote locations they opperate in,
it is difficult to assess the scale. It is a
crime to take protected wild plants and it
is illegal to take any plant without the landowners
permission, so we need members of the public
to report this type of activity.
   "We would urge them to be more vigilant and
suspicious of plant theft, particularly in the evenings
and at the weekends."

   Dr Deborah Long of Plantlife Scotland said the
native bluebell was threatened not only by people
collecting it, but due to hybridisation with Spanish
bluebells, which were on sale at many garden centres
and produced fertile hybrids of planted near
native bluebells.

   Advice on how to prevent plant crime and
hydbrisation is available from Plantlife Scotland on www..plantlife.org.uk
and the matter was also highlighted on BBC TV,s
Beechgrove Garden show.