Theft of Threatened Plants Hinders Recovery Effort

Chris Holmes and Phil Villa-Lobos
USDA Office of Press and Media Relations
News Division
Washington, DC

Washington, Aug. 5--A theft of rare plants from a national forest in Illinois may significantly hinder efforts to save the threatened Mead's milkweed, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service.

Forest Service Chief F. Dale Robertson said law enforcement officials from the Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are investigating the plant theft. The Shawnee National Forest has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the plant thieves.

Robertson said an entire population of Mead's milkweed was stolen from the Shawnee National Forest in mid-June, including both wild plants and young plants recently planted through a cooperative reintroduction effort. The plant is listed by the Federal Government as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Mead's milkweed is an important remnant of the tallgrass prairie which was once prevalent in much of the Midwest, though much of its habitat has been converted to other uses. The Shawnee National Forest site was one of only six places where the plant was known to exist in the Eastern United States, and is the "premier site for reintroducing the plant in its native habitat," Robertson said.

Mead's milkweed has been the focus of a national cooperative recovery effort involving the Forest Service; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL; and the Illinois Department of Conservation.

Robertson said that botanists fear the theft of the plant may have compromised the recovery effort for the species. "This is a major setback for our cooperative efforts to reestablish the species east of the Mississippi River," Robertson said. "We're going to have to redouble our efforts if we're going to be successful." He said additional Mead's milkweed plants grown at the Morton Arboretum will be replanted at the damaged site, and other possible sites for the milkweed will be restored and planted as well.