Bird nerd,
I have that happen before as well, dont dwell on it too much at this point, the damage is already done, the best advice that i can give anyone who wants to try and prevent this is to monitor your ginseng at every opportunity, spring summer and fall, the more you are in the woods increases your odds of getting your crop to market, it never hurts to go out into the woods and target practice with alot of ammo. Topping your ginseng before season starts will also increase your odds, Also look at the property and try to determine where the most likely entry points are and remove ALL of the ginseng from those locations, dont stop there also remove any other medicinal plants goldenseal, starroot, bloodroot, ect. If it is not your property then you may be limited on what you can do. If the property owner is allowing other hunters onto the property then the best advice i can give is to find somewhere else. In reality if you dont own the property your wasting you time and effort and taking a huge risk. I would never \"Steward someone else's ginseng, especially in these hard economic times. Unless you have 100% control over your crop you may see this repeated over and over. It could have been any number of the property owners friends or relatives, grandson, cousin, nephew, uncle ect, well you get the picture.
