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2. Secondly, I wish to applaud the efforts of the individual 50 sates to conserve 

 their own rare and endangered plants. Over half of the states. 26. have passed some 

 kind of endangered plant Law. These laws vary grcady in their provisions. The typical 

 state law provides for a listing process and prohibits commercial sale without permits or 

 prohibits taking from another person's land without permission. 



A few state programs stand out as particularly strong because of their 

 implementation or legal provisions. These include Massachusetts, the most recent state 

 to pass such a law, which extends protection to endangered and threatened plants on 

 private land. California has a strong provision for coordinating the activities of other 

 state agencies when their activities ^oct rare plants. Ohio, even with a rather weak law, 

 has made tremendous progress through an aggressive public inftxmation campaign. And 

 North Carolina has the bat nursery regulations in tlie nation for controlling conuncrcial 

 activity of rare or endangered plants. 



These state efforts can be and are beiny greariy assis ted by federal activities 

 including the Endangered Species Act . Money allotted to the states through Section 6 

 funding is essential to keeping many of the state programs intact and working effectively. 

 The increase in botanists in recent years in the federal land management agencies is a 

 particular boon to the western states, where large amounts of land in federal ownership 

 and a high number of rare and endangered plants meet. Increased fiinding to these 

 agencies for plant survey and protection activities has allowed for increased information 

 and bener conservation strategics. These surveys have revealed that some species arc 

 more commonly than once thought, allowing officials to remove these species from 

 listing consideration. A small portion of that funding is provided to organizations like 

 The Berry Botanic Garden who arc working with the agencies, often sharing equally the 

 cost of the prjjccts themselves. 



3. Thirdly, 1 would like to address briefly the medicinal use of these plants. In 

 shorr. I estimate that more than half of the rare and endangered plants in this country 

 are related to plant3 of known medicinal me. Specifically for this hearing, I analyzed a 

 list of plants considered rare or endangered in Oregon, Wxihington, and Idaho, a total 

 of 556 different spcacs, in 112 different genera. I cross-referenced this list to plants of 

 known economic value. The results of this impromptu survey were not surprising to 

 me, although they are dramatic. Of the 556 total species, S49 or 63 percent are related 

 to plants of economic value for foot!, medicine, utilitarian purposes, or as poisons. 



The highest value was for medicinal use. A total of 277 of the species-just under 

 50 peaxnt -are related to plants of known medicinal use or which were used medicinally 

 by Native Americans. 



When you think about this carefully, it is not surprising. Plants have been 

 evolving and adapting to their habitats for thousands of years. In so doing, they have 



