The National Park Service is considering allowing Native Americans to harvest wild ceremonial plants from protected parklands. The benefit does not extend to other ethnicities. Animals and cultural artifacts will have to stay. Ginseng may be sold for $500-$800/lb, but the harvests are not to be for commercial purposes.

Last year, Smoky Mountain police issued fifteen warnings and eleven citations for cultural resource violations. The number of these that pertained to plant poaching was not recorded.