More than two dozen Pink Lady Slipper plants were dug up and stolen from Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area/US Forest Service file

There are poachers, and then there are dumb poachers. Neither are good, but the dumb ones are those who leave behind evidence of their illegal deed. For example, at Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area the dumb poachers didn't erase the holes they dug to steal more than two dozen Pink Lady Slipper plants.

While the plants with the gorgeous flowers are in the orchid family, they are common and not threatened or endangered. Still, it's illegal to dig up plants inside a unit of the National Park System.

The theft of the roughly 30 plants that were growing along Leatherwood Loop Trail in the Tennessee portion of the park was discovered on June 11 when park staff discovered the holes where the plants were known to be present. Flowering and vegetative individuals at the site had been counted by park staff two weeks earlier, on May 28, so an accurate count of how many plants were dug was possible.

It's believed that the theft occurred around June 8 or 9.

Park rangers are requesting that anyone with information on this plant theft case or any other plant thefts that the public is aware of to call the Resource Protection Hotline at (423) 569-7301. 

Orchids often have swollen, ball-shaped tubers that were regarded in traditional practices as having medicinal value. The root of lady's slipper was used as a remedy for nervousness, tooth pain, and muscle spasms. In the 1800s and 1900s it, and other orchids, were widely used as a substitute for the European plant valerian for sedative properties. -- U.S. Forest Service