YewCon Advocacy

Harvesting of old yew trees for bark collection. 
Umpqua National Forest, Oregon

The Native Yew Conservation Council (YewCon) was formed in the late 1980’s to address growing concern about non-sustainable yew harvests. Yew populations on pubic lands had already been depleted by decades of industrial clear-cutting that left “useless” trees (like yews) to rot.

Yew harvests for paclitaxel specifically targeted the largest remaining yews because they were the cheapest source of bark. Cutting ancient yews for their bark was often compared to slaughtering buffalo for their hides.

While the world welcomed the development of an effective new cancer drug, YewCon focused on protecting both cancer patients and wild yews through sustainable yew harvesting.

We advocate harvesting the renewable needles instead of the bark, and switching from wild yews to plantation production . YewCon urged involved federal, state and industry officials to move quickly toward sustainable yew harvesting, and launched a series of 10 public meetings from Seattle to San Francisco to educate the public and provide a forum for all parties to meet and communicate. YewCon also organized the First International Yew Resources Conference, March 12 & 13, 1993 in Berkeley, CA.

The combined efforts of YewCon and other concerned organizations, institutions, and individuals led to the passage in Congress of the Pacific Yew Act and to more yew protection on public lands. With the advent of semi-synthesis processes that permit economic and sustainable extraction of taxol precursors from yew leaves, and plantations that produce from yew plant biomass, the pressure to harvest yew bark from native populations diminished. Public concern and pressure led Bristol-Myer Squibb, the major harvester of wild yews on public lands, to finally discontinue harvesting in forests managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

The Native Yew Conservation Council is now focusing more on international yew conservation, education, and research issues. Many wild yews are still being adversely impacted around the world.

To spotlight the global condition of yew resources, YewCon is sponsoring the "The Yew Chronicles Continued--Microtubule-Stabilizing Therapeutic Agents (MiSTAs) Conference" in May 2005. Please join us!