A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to study the impact of harvesting of wild ginseng and other native plants on natural populations and identify threats posed by unregulated overharvesting.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  The Natural Heritage Program of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources shall study present and historical extent and density of wild populations of native ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) and population trends over time in order to determine the extent to which overharvesting of ginseng is threatening the future of the resource. The Natural Heritage Program shall report the results of its study, as well as any recommendations for additional protections needed to limit overharvesting and remove or inhibit economic motives for the illegal poaching of ginseng, to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources and the Fiscal Research Division no later than December 1, 2021. As part of its report, the Natural Heritage Program may identify other native plants threatened by overharvest or poaching and protections needed to limit or eliminate overharvest and poaching of those species, based on existing surveys and research performed by the Natural Heritage Program.
SECTION 2.  The sum of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2019‑2020 fiscal year is appropriated to the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to be allocated to the Natural Heritage Program to carry out the study required by this act.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2019.