The husband of an acquaintance has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison on a guily plea of importing endangered orchid species. Although this has been unfolding for months, I just found out last night. The whole affair was very well summarized by the pollenatrix back in a March entry.
My heart goes out to George and his wife Kathy, the director of the Montgomery County Dispute Resolution Center. There are ironies upon ironies in this set of events. The chief among them is that George Norris, as part of the orchid-growing and-trading community, is dedicated to the preservation of orchid species and especially interested in the preservation and propagation of rare and endangered species. The law which he was accused of breaking (provision of the CINES treaty) was ostensibly designed to preserve endangered orchid species, but it has financially ruined a thriving orchid business and orchid-grower, making the fate of orchid species more precarious by culling from the ranks of civil society someone who lived and breathed orchids.
