Very interesting read, I was not aware of some of the useful information in this link. It would suggest there is some degree of rational thinking among some of the officials at least in Fish and Widlife. Still, a hundred dollar permit for a nursery to sell artificially propagated species legally seems a bit excessive, and I don't know if the permit would cover only one sale or one species or is a general permit for all federally listed species grown at the nursery. The latter is not excessive, but the former situations wouldn't make sense from an economic point of view. But at least it appears that individuals are free to trade seed/plants of federally listed species if there is no commercial intent within the US. Ernie DeMarie Z 7 NY where we await the cold front that will bring us our first significant frost of the year by Friday. -----Original Message----- From: Monica Swartz <eciton@utexas.edu> To: pbs <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Wed, Nov 12, 2014 1:53 am Subject: Re: [pbs] Sharing seeds of rare plants Jane, the US Endangered Species Act encourages the propagation and distribution of rare and listed species. There is a good discussion of this at http://torreyaguardians.org/shirey-2013-excerpts.p…. You can reassure your friend that he is only helping these plants by propagation and distribution. If he wants to adhere to the strictest interpretation of the law, if he gives cultivated plants or seeds to others (without profit or gain), he is in total adherence to the law and can send them between states. Hope this helps, monica