rockm

for the most part, collectors are well aware of the ethical and bilogical challenges presented by digging up old trees. They know they bear a responsibility to the environment and to the individual tree they're taking.

Most (there are always a few idiots) will take the time to determine if taking a tree would pose a threat to the local landscape and environment before they dig it--those considerations not only incorporate practical considerations, but emotional ones. Digging up a stunted "landscape" pine on a heavily-used hiking trail would pose a problem, for instance.

However, digging the same tree on a remote hillside where it is among a thousand others, wouldn't.

The decisions made by collectors varies tremendously regionally. A "collectable" tree in a Utah forest probably would be a "collectible" tree in a National Park in the Eastern U.S.

The collector also has a responsibility to learn how to care for his quarry before he/she digs it up. That's simple respect.

I think, for the most part, bonsai collectors are staunch protectors of the natural world, since it is that world that they try to capture in their art.

Finally, common sense (as well as many Federal and local laws) dictates you get permission from landowners before helping yourself to the things on their property. That 100 year-old pine you dug out of someone's ditch without asking could wind up costing you $10,000 in fines or legal fees, or a posterior full of buckshot if you get caught red-handed live in Texas ;-)...