This Ginseng is all the same size so the seed must have fallen from larger plants that have since been dug, or maybe someone planted it here. Chainsaws nearby are a disturbing sound that adds a pressure on my thoughts. Adair County skirts the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountain range. Here are small farms with cleared fields on the bottom lands and workable hills of the landscape. Steep hollows, rocky cliff shoulders, rough banks, and sinkholes create neglected places where trees are allowed to remain.
Forests continue to be cut down and bulldozed everywhere except on steep and rough land.
Replacing the woods are new houses and cattle pastures. It is rare to find forest growing on level ground. Around the large creek valleys such as Crocus Creek, the hills are too steep for houses or farming. Here are extensive forests. Despite the pressures, in Adair County we still have a vital Wild Ginseng tradition and economy.