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Spring
2002
A
Tale of Internet Intrigue, Invasives, and Homeland Heroics
A
Weed Meets its Match
by
Debra Shore
The
sentinels at eBay, overseeing approximately five million
eager entrepreneurs listing items for sale, don’t look
kindly on someone trying to sell contraband. But, as Martha
Carver of Hebron, Illinois, discovered last summer, the
only illegal weed they had heard of was cannabis. Mention
purple loosestrife and they knew not a thing. Thanks to
Martha, now they do.
We’re
talking about Martha Carver, kindergarten teacher, wife
and mother of two. She’s also a recently appointed
trustee of the McHenry County Conservation District and
a budding seller of collectibles and native seeds on eBay.
Our
story begins last summer, when Martha Carver took a class
to learn how to sell successfully on eBay. Martha and her
husband, Andrew — he’s a co-steward at Alden Sedge
Meadow — live on 26 acres, which they are restoring.
"We have extra seed that we harvest," Martha explained.
Some they sell retail, but the excess inventory Martha decided
to sell on eBay.
Like
any diligent entrepreneur, she went to check out the competition,
accessing the eBay site, heading to the section on plants
and seeds, and then clicking on "wildflowers."
There, amidst the listings for red monkey flower and wild
bergamot, Martha saw an auction for purple loosestrife.
"I couldn’t believe it!" she said.
From
her experience as a longtime restoration volunteer, Martha
knew that purple loosestrife — Lythrum salicaria
— is an exotic weed that is devastating wetlands across
the Midwest. If agriculture and natural resource departments
had a 10 Most Wanted poster of bad actors, loosestrife would
be on it. Its sale is prohibited in many states, including
Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Violators prosecuted in
Illinois could spend one to six months in jail and pay a
$500 fine.
Ever
the teacher, Martha first thought, "perhaps the seller
doesn’t know what she’s doing." Indeed, some
species of loosestrife are noninvasive and completely legal.
Perhaps, Martha thought, this is a teachable moment.
"She
had the Latin name listed and even indicated that some people
find the plant obnoxious," Martha said, recalling the
item listing, "but the seller also said it has beautiful
purple flowers, does well in wet areas, is very sturdy and
hardy and is great for landscaping!" So Martha sent
the seller an e-mail, inquiring if she knew what, in fact,
she was selling. "I was very careful not to sound pushy,"
Martha later noted. The seller replied that because she
was only selling purple loosestrife seeds, she considered
her actions to be completely above-board.
 Martha
tried again. "Do you realize the damage this plant
can cause?" she e-mailed back. "Do you know that
agencies are spending millions of dollars to try to eradicate
this plant? Do you know that one plant can produce millions
of seeds? Could you please not sell it?"
The
seller, not entirely civil in her response, demurred.
So
Martha asked Ed Collins, restoration ecologist with the
McHenry County Conservation District, to step in and use
his scientific clout to continue the lesson. When Ed received
no reply, his wife, Denise, sent an e-mail to the obdurate
seller. "Buzz off," was the response, in even
less charitable terms.
"Martha’s
very nice and she’s a swell lady," Ed Collins
commented, "but she’s a preschool teacher, so
she doesn’t put up with a lot of garbage."
The
teacher contacted customer service at eBay. They, at least,
were responsive and nice, but knew nothing about illegal
weeds other than pot. "Get us documentation,"
they replied to Martha, "and then maybe we can do something."
"That
night I couldn’t sleep," Martha said. "I
got on the computer and I contacted all the departments
of natural resources in the Midwest. I contacted the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) — they have a group
that deals with noxious weeds — and I even contacted
Canada!" She wrote to The Nature Conservancy, Sierra
Club, Audubon, Ducks Unlimited, Michigan State University,
and the Vermont Purple Loosestrife Project.
Martha
figured, at best, she would hear from a handful of them.
Instead, they all replied with offers to help. The Nature
Conservancy put their invasive species guru onto the case.
Agency officials e-mailed eBay, which then asked for documentation.
An
attorney for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources
sent eBay a letter along with the state statute outlawing
sale of purple loosestrife. The USDA said this was a new
frontier — they hadn’t yet encountered internet
sales of noxious plants.
Soon,
Martha was cautioned not to attempt to purchase anything
from the suspect vendor. Several agencies wanted to attempt
a sting operation. By the end of September, the listings
of loosestrife seeds for sale had stopped. "Everybody
was doing their part," Martha said.
At
the beginning of November, with no fanfare, eBay changed
its policy regarding sale of plants and weeds. Now in a
list of prohibited items, nestled between Mailing Lists
and Postage Meters, is Plants and Seeds (http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-plantsandseeds.html).
eBay has posted the relevant laws and advises all sellers
and buyers to review them prior to listing items. Now, if
someone like Martha happens across a sale of an illegal
weed, eBay will warn the seller and then boot them on second
offense.
"We
had just gone through an education program with the conservation
district about the beetles they’re raising and releasing
to try to reduce the loosestrife," Martha recounted.
"That’s what got my ire up — seeing the loosestrife
spread in areas where we’ve been working so hard on
restoration."
Though
Martha has since crashed her hard drive, she’s still
conducting online patrols. "It was probably one of
the most satisfying things I’ve done in a long time,"
she said of her campaign with eBay, "because it involved
so many people I’ve never met. They jumped at the chance
to help and there were so many people involved because of
the internet. Even the federal government," Martha
added in amazement. "I only expected them to contact
me at tax time!"
Still,
Martha warns, eBay relies on buyers and sellers to police
themselves. So, in a word, it’s up to us.
For
Martha’s extra seed (all of it legal and sold wholesale),
contact Carver’s Native Plants at (815) 648-4060 or
mcarver@stans.com.
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