Google to the rescue: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27039021/ Venus flytraps face loss of habitat Development, poachers hurting populations of the carnivorous plant GREEN SWAMP PRESERVE, N.C. - Laura Gadd pauses at the edge of a pristine savanna, delicately lifting her feet to avoid trampling any venus flytraps hidden underfoot. Buried below wisps of wire grass, a few of the plants advertise their presence with a single white flower perched atop a long stem like a flag of surrender. Gadd finds a half-dozen this day, enough to warrant a spray of glue and inconspicuous powder used to identify the plants and track down poachers who pluck them. "Let me mark these  this is a good cluster," she says, crouching in the shadow of a longleaf pine. One of nature's most recognized wonders, the venus flytrap's ability to snatch living prey makes it a favorite of elementary school science classes everywhere. Yet the flytrap is falsely ferocious: It's hardly the man-eating Audrey Jr. from "The Little Shop of Horrors," but a tiny plant only a few inches tall with leaves no bigger than a thumbprint. These days, the little plant is more vulnerable than ever. And despite its popularity, the people who could protect it seem focused on other problems. The flytrap's natural habitat exists only within a hundred miles of the Carolinas' coast, where much larger and more territorial plants have always held forth. Booming growth and development along the coast threatens to overrun the few sensitive and thin populations of venus flytraps that still exist in the wild. Plants exist in just one county An Associated Press review of state botany records found that nearly 80 percent of the 117 identified wild populations of flytraps in North Carolina have little chance of surviving, have been wiped out altogether or haven't been seen in years. Most of the viable clusters are in nature preserves, yet experts believe some of those could be thinned by encroaching humans. "When you go out looking for these populations that have been recorded, you find you're either in a golf course or a subdivision, or a road or a shopping center," said James Luken, a professor at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C., who studies wetland ecology. "It's a biological hotspot, but it's a development hotspot. These areas are being transformed as fast as the bulldozers can roll." In South Carolina, flytraps were once found in as many as four counties. But experts there now believe populations exist only in Horry County, on the North Carolina line, and they're quickly retreating to a single nature preserve. Flytraps also are being wiped out by logging and efforts to suppress wildfires in their slim stretches between dry Carolina savannas and mucky pocosins, a type of wetland. As forest personnel dig firelines to prevent frequent savanna fires from spreading into the pocosins, where fires can rage for weeks in the sandy, peaty soil, they often trample the fragile flytraps. Poachers also target the carnivorous plant that's a big seller in nurseries, at roadside stands and on the Internet. Flytraps are especially popular overseas, and they're increasingly used for medicinal purposes, but poaching prosecutions are rare because other plants and animals take a higher priority. "Plants are a challenge because they don't have big brown eyes and fur," said Tom Chisdock, an Asheville-based special agent with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. "So, when you're trying to get people excited about doing enforcement and prosecuting them, sometimes that can be a challenge." A 'special concern' North Carolina officially considers the plant a "special concern," but the state laws protecting the flytrap are lax. The North Carolina Plant Conservation Program, part of the state Department of Agriculture, has long desired stronger protections, but admits that with a staff of three it wouldn't be able to enforce stricter rules. Gadd, a botanist with the program, said the state considered upgrading the flytrap's protection status to "threatened," but decided against it because the designation is largely reserved for plants that have less than 20 populations remaining in the state. The flytrap has more, although only 16 are graded with "excellent" or "good" viability. "When you look at the grand scope of things, all of those populations are in one small corner in the whole world," Gadd said. Some of the healthiest flytrap populations include tens of thousands of plants clustered in well-protected spots, including the vast Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg military bases. There, the plants are dependent on programs of prescribed burns that clear out competing vegetation like wildfires would normally do. Sgt. Charles Smith, of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said repeated flytrap poachers face only misdemeanor charges and are generally fined less than $200. On rare occasions, they'll get a few days in jail. He recalls catching one poacher more than a dozen times digging up "thousands upon thousands" of flytraps on state land to sell for only a dollar or two each. "What I understand is that him and his crowd are still at it," Smith said. Smith and his staff of five cover four counties, where they are tasked with enforcing fishing and boating laws while keeping track of more than 250,000 acres of gamelands. "You could spend 60 days working this and maybe one out of 60 days be in the in the right place and right time to contact these individuals," he said. Little protection provided Rarely used federal laws provide a little more protection, limiting interstate transport and sale of flytraps. But the plant's not considered an endangered species, lost behind hundreds of others on the waiting list. Rep. Carolyn Justice, a Republican who represents the Wilmington area, pushed last year to begin regulating flytraps in the same fashion as ginseng, a plant used in a variety of herbal and Eastern medicines. The state has a permitting process that requires ginseng dealers to document where they acquired their crop, and North Carolina law makes harvesting ginseng on someone else's land a felony. But Justice's proposal stalled in a legislative committee after the state Department of Agriculture said they didn't have people in place to enforce it. "Our population down here is exploding," Justice said. "And as we encroach on these forests, we encroach on (the flytrap). We just need to be real careful monitoring how these are harvested and sold." Some of the most delicate flytrap populations are found on the edges of civilization, just feet from schools or corridors for electrical transmission lines. Misty Buchanan, a botanist with the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, worries about a small patch of flytraps in the heart of Wilmington next to playground blacktop. Only this year did the state recategorize the population from "fair viability"  not under threat  to "poor viability." "It's being kept alive only by people who care and want to keep the natural habitat of the coastal plain," Buchanan said.

Welcome creativegarden - you don't say if you are planning on moving to the Outer Banks or just the sound side of the coast. There is a difference. The zone chart shows basically a zone warmer on the Outer Banks (it's usually ten degrees cooler in the summer and ten degrees warmer in the winter!) in relation to the center of the state. Though inland you can grow just about anything, the salty air and constant wind limit what you can grow out on the islands. If you're thinking inland a bit from the coast you simply have to grow camelias, azaleas and gardenias (it should be a law), there are hardy palm trees that like the area and some hardy citrus (you won't get a crop every year). The soil is sandy so you have to ammend it all the time. The coast gets more rain then I do in Raleigh, but they are suffering in this drought too. Gardening is gardening no matter where you are - you can grow all year if you want down here (few people do). Expect mosquitos and biting flies just like in Minnesota (same number, just smaller) except the season is longer. You might see snakes near the water - but they are pretty rare. You will probably see alligators but not in your yard (they like golf courses along the coast!). If you're lucky you might see Red Wolves (or hear them), similar call as the Grey Wolf but they are smaller and look more like a Coyote. Depending on the area, you might see the same amount of Black Bears as you have up north. In one afternoon of hiking near Lake Bemidji MN I saw 5 black bears. On one morning hike in the Alligator River State Park near Manteo NC I saw 6 - though most people here have never seen a bear in the wild.

This is not exactly on-topic but close enough that I think you all will be interested. I recently learned that one of the big things causing mold is improperly installed house-wrap. It isn't rocket science to put up Tyvek or other air/moisture barriers properly but apparently a lot of builders don't pay any attention to the house-wrap specs. They just slap the stuff up and put siding over it and the owner is no wiser... until they start having mold problems. Dupont - who makes Tyvek - has gone to the effort of making "housewrap specialists" available in all areas who will come out to your build-site for free and advise on exactly HOW to properly install Tyvek. I know this because when my builder's sub put the Tyvek wrap up, it didn't look right to me - way too many staples and those that were used looked too small, lots of patched together pieces, lower sections over the top of upper sections so that water would be funneled between the layers of Tyvek, vertical seams with no taping, etc. etc. etc. So I went to the Dupont website and pulled up the specs for Tyvek house-wrap and read them. Needless to say, this precipitated a major fight between me and my builder who insisted that his sub had put Tyvek on "hundreds of homes" and that "he knows what he is doing" and "there is more than one right way to put it up" and "I'm the builder, you should trust me to know what I'm doing" etc. In desperation, I contacted Dupont and they gave me the phone number of their house-wrap specialist in my area. I called him at 4:30 PM and he told me he would meet me at my house at 8:30 the next morning. He arrived and took one look, and immediately told my builder "this will NOT do, your installation voids our warranties and if you slap hardiplank over this mess, it'll be a wonder if the homeowner doesn't have mold problems inside of three years." Since my contract requires my builder to follow the specs of manufactured products so as to not void any manufacturer's warranty, that gave me the clout I needed to get my builder to make his sub do it right! The Dupont house-wrap specialist stayed at my site about 3 hours that morning advising the subcontractor and his workers on exactly what needed to be done to fix the job. He then made 2 more trips to out to inspect and finally sign off on the Tyvek installation. Since he had to travel nearly 40 miles (one way) to reach my house, I figure he put in close to a full day assisting with my build. And it cost me nothing so I know there is no way Dupont could have made any profit whatsoever on the house-wrap that went into my house. On his third trip, I asked him WHY Dupont would bother. His response was that it wasn't just my house that was affected but potentially every house that my builder and that sub and even any of his crew worked on in the future and that Dupont saw educating these people as the only way they could protect the integrity of their product. I have to say, I was impressed and wanted to share the information. I'm now reading the installation specs on every product that goes into my house and watching to see that they are followed and, if they're not, I'm going to be calling the manufacturer pronto.

I've found that putting up signs warning people how hot the peppers are actually increases sales, but it does increase awareness also. I sell the carolina reaper and other super hots at market and after a while you get a clientele. just tell all your hot pepper customers that they can get a good feeling of the heat level of a pepper by purchasing it and poking a toothpick close to the stem of the pepper and putting that toothpick on the center of their tongue and wait a minute. Then they will have an accurate idea of the heat level of the pepper. I also live in a college town and make sure the college students don't want to pull pranks on others by scareing them with tales of people that had heart attacks and had to be hospitalized from hot peppers, even though it's probably not true, it does make them think. I overheard two guys saying they were going to "get" someone else with the pepper, and I wouldn't sell it to them! I gave them a good talking to and sent them off. My mom side I guess!