Note: The statements, views, figures, and opinions mentioned in the
following article are that of the author only. This article, though it
may be supported by many forestals, was not written for any
organization. The author wrote the article of his own free will. Any
Divine or mortal wrath should be directed to the author and not nature
or any organization.

***************************************

A new form of theft has risen in the realms in which the victims have
little or no reasonable means to protect themselves. This form of theft
affects a greater number of people compared to other forms of theft. The
victims are left helpless to defend themselves or to punish those who
have wronged them. The cost of this new theft is immense and reaches far
beyond just the forestal community. Strip harvesting is a form of theft
in which the forestal community has no reasonable means to prevent or
defend from it.

In the realms all people have the permanent right to self defense (1).
Though this example given in HELP PKRULES is regarding being attacked it
can be reasonably assumed it also pertains to theft. An adventurer is
given many means to defend themselves from different forms of theft. An
adventurer can have the defense of blindness to defend against SNAP
attacks. An adventurer can use ENT or GROUP to see if they are being
followed. A shop owner has the ability to throw down an eye sigil before
entering their stockroom. These are just a few of many examples on how
one can defend and seek justice against their aggressors. The Divine, in
their infinite wisdom, created theft in this manner. So both the victim
and the thief are on a level playing field. There was, until recently,
no form of theft in which an adventurer was given no previous warning,
either visually or otherwise, or no clue has to who performed the theft.

To be more easily understood by all gold will be used as the comparison.
It is understood that most who protect nature care little for gold,
however, most people can relate to its value therefore is the best item
to use for comparison.

The monetary affect of strip harvesting is immense and wide spread. One
must remember that every room must be replanted to at least 1 for any
plant life to grow again. Recent cases of strip harvesting have affected
entire areas like Ulangi and Shala-Khulia. When, like in the previous
examples, the area is off continent it involves a large number of people
and time. Plants, harvested from the ground, must be replanted within
the very small time frame of one real life minute. This
trans-continental planting is very costly in both energy and time. To
provide a clearer picture of the cost of strip harvesting related to
time spent legally earning gold the examples below has been provided.

***It is noted that these results are not scientific or one-hundred
percent accurate, however, it does provide a perspective that many can
relate to and does approximate value to the cost of strip harvesting.
Information used to make this analysis was obtained from posts, logs,
and personal correspondences. The use of real life dates is neccesarry
to compare to log entries. Apologies to those who would be offend by
this use of OOC dates. If any Divine wishes to see the sources used for
these figures please contact Druid Holz Sparrow.

Five persons of varying overall and survival experience were asked to
approximate how much profit they can earn in real hour fishing. The
figure came to an average of 4025 gold per hour. This estimate of 4025
gold per hour (67 gold per minute) will be used for the basis of
comparison in the following examples.

GREAT ROCK 10/8/2005

Stripped: Moss, Bloodroot, Kelp
Oakstone minimums: Moss 100, Bloodroot 60, Kelp 20
Aprox. # Rooms Stripped: 5
Aprox # of Forestals to Replant: 4
Aprox # Minutes to Replant: 16

Assuming that all rooms were at the Oakstone harvesting limit of 10
plants per room the thief/thieves stole 9,000 gold worth of plants.
These plants were taken illegally and cost all of Achaea that 9,000
gold.

The 4 individuals who helped to replant Great Rock could have instead
spent their time gaining gold legally by fishing. If they fished as a
group they, together, would have gained 4,288 gold total. Divided
amongst them that is 1,072 gold a piece. Their time was robbed from them
by a thief/thieves. One could say that this thief/thieves robbed them of
1,072 gold of their time.

INBHIR NESS 10/10/2005

Stripped: Valerian, Goldenseal
Oakstone minimums: Valerian 80, Goldenseal 30
Aprox. # Rooms Stripped: 45
Aprox # of Forestals to Replant: 9
Aprox # Minutes to Replant: 45

Again, assuming that all rooms were at the Oakstone harvesting limit of
10 plants per room the thief/thieves stole 49,500 gold worth of plants.
49,500 worth of plants stolen from all of Achaea.

In the 45 minutes stolen from the people to help replant the area the
group could have made a total of 27,135 gold or 3,015 gold per person.
Unfortunately these 9 individuals will never have their time returned to
them.

SHALA KHULIA

Stripped: Moss, Bloodroot
Oakstone minimums: Moss 100, Bloodroot 60
Aprox. # Rooms Stripped: 30
Aprox # of Forestals to Replant: 8
Aprox # Minutes to Replant: 180

Again, assuming that all rooms were at the Oakstone harvesting limit of
10 plants per room the thief/thieves stole 48,000 gold worth of plants.
The shop owners of Achaea will now miss out on a possible 48,000 gold
worth of business due to a thief/thieves.

It took 3 real life hours to replant Shala Khulia. They could have made
a total 96,480 gold fishing. Instead, this thief/thieves stole 12,060
gold worth of time from each person.

These are only a few of over 10 strip harvesting incidents in the last
year. Since the creation of auto-classing the increase of strip
harvesting has in creased many fold. Forestals are now beginning to
spend the majority of their time replanting and patrolling because of a
few greedy people and the lack of Divine help.

***Again, it is noted that most forestals do not value gold greatly.
However, it is something that most mortals can compare other things to.
Please do not misinterpret the authors use of gold for comparison as a
lack of love for nature.

As you can see the cost of strip harvesting to just one or two
individuals is quite large. The cost to the greater whole is extensive.
Plus, there are many other forms of cost which have not been included.
For example the cost of having to increase price minimums on herbs. The
cost of lack of available elixirs. The cost of losing adventurers
because of frustration in the lack of abilities to defend themselves and
others
from strip harvesting.

This problem cannot be solved simply by patrolling and hoping to catch
these thieves in the act. It is mortally impossible for the forestal
community to do this. The realms are divided into over 80 different
regions which all need to be patrolled room by room. The clan Walking
with Nature, which is a clan made up of many forestals from different
walks of life, is responsible for patrolling and checking plant numbers.
This clan barely has 90 member in which not all of them are active. The
only defense the forestal community has at the moment is catching a
thief in the act. To do that you would have to have every member of
Walking with Nature on constant patrol. With the available man power it
has now that is impossible. The majority of forestal houses do not even
have enough active members to take on such a task.

The Divine of Achaea need to permit forestals to see who last harvested
a plant even if that plant has been harvested to 0. Whether or not they
choose to give this ability to all or a few is not of importance.
Without being able to see who is doing the strip harvesting the forestal
community cannot perform its function of protecting nature. If this
continues the forestal community will have to take further steps to get
satisfactory results.

The forestal community asks for Divine intervention in this manner.
Strip harvesting is robbing the forestal community, and to a greater
extent all of Sapience, of time and money. In the past rights and
abilities have been given to the victims of thieves. The forestal
community respectfully asks that the Divine continue to follow through
with their policy. Please give the forestal community the means to see
who has been robbing nature, forestals, and the rest of Sapience.



Penned by my hand on the 9th of Phaestian, in the year 404 AF.