Man gets prison for poaching nearly 1,000 Venus Flytraps

In a 2009 photo provided by The Nature Conservancy, a Venus flytrap is open, in the Green Swamp Preserve in Brunswick County, N.C. Three Brunswick county residents were arrested Monday, Jan. 24, 2012 charged with poaching Venus flytraps from The Nature Conservancys Green Swamp Preserve. The flytraps have been returned safely to their home in the swamp. (AP/The Nature Conservancy)

BURGAW, N.C. – A North Carolina man will spend at least six months in prison after he removed nearly 1,000 Venus Flytrap plants from public game lands.

Media outlets reported that a jury found 23-year-old Paul Simmons Jr. guilty. A judge sentenced him Tuesday to six months to 17 months in prison.

Venus Flytraps only grow in wetlands in southeast North Carolina and northeast South Carolina. The carnivorous plants trap bugs to survive. They are protected, and poaching them was made a felony in North Carolina in December 2014.

Prosecutors said Simmons was caught by a wildlife officer with 970 plants in his vehicle in January 2015 at the Holly Shelter Game Land in Hampstead.

Two others with Simmons received probation, while a fourth defendant is awaiting trial.