To the Florida Department of Agriculture Commissioner:

Saw Palmetto Berries and their plants are used by over 300 species of wildlife including black bears, honeybees, and other important natives to Florida.  They are vital to black bears when the fruit comes in at the time when bears must be packing on pounds to go through their torpor state in winter.  If a female bear does not gain enough weight, she will not give birth or have a smaller litter.  Some bears literally starve through this period.  

Saw Palmetto berries have become a very lucrative business in Florida and draw more and more pickers with each year, especially as our economy plummets.  The requirements for pickers are permits which are free and permissions from property owners.  State land and wildlife management areas are forbidden to pick from.

Pickers can make hundreds of dollars a day. And not only them but the private buyers that they sell to. They are a middleman.  Then those buyers sell to larger corporations that sell to pharmaceuticals.    As you can see there is a lot of money being made off of our natural resources which cost the pickers nothing.  

The pickers cut the stalks to shake the berries off into their buckets.  Cutting the stalks off prevents the plants from flowering in the spring, thus preventing bees and other pollinators from getting that nectar.    

Pickers also skip getting permits for various reasons.  Perhaps some are undocumented and are afraid of being caught. They will harvest undercover at night or be dropped off and then picked back up to avoid detection.  Arrests are numerous but there are not enough officers to catch most of them.  

Hunters and fishermen are all required to have licenses and permits but pickers are not.  This shouldn't be. They are taking our resources and that of the wildlife, etc. without having to compensate at all for it.  If they are arrested the fines are low and they aren't worried because the profits from the berries far outweigh the fines.  

So changes need to be made.  There need to be licensed buyers and crew leaders. There need to be paid permits by the pickers to benefit our state. It should be illegal to cut off the stalks of the plants that the berries and flowers are born on.   Fines for all should be substantial enough to make it not worth ignoring these laws.   

Therefore, we request that these changes be made before the next season of 2023.