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Drug agents sniffed out a major marijuana patch at Palomar Mountain State Park a few months ago in the kind of raid that has become all too common on U.S. public lands.
What officials initially thought might be a few hundred plants ended up being 15,000. Police also found two men and a woman tending the plots, whose yield would have been worth $60 million on the street.
The crop tenders scampered into the woods, leaving behind trash and terraces they had formed on the hillside. Initial repairs to such an area can cost taxpayers $10,000 per acre for staff time and a helicopter to haul away garbage, said the Office of National Drug Control Policy. On average, ten acres are fouled for every acre of marijuana planted in forests and on other public lands, the agency said.
"The whole process of these marijuana plantations brutalizes the landscape," said David Graber, Pacific West regional science chief for the National Park Service.
The outdoor growing season for marijuana is coming to a close for the year, but some scars left by clandestine pot farms will take months to heal. Anti-drug agencies must deal with tons of trash, human waste, erosion and other forms of soil disturbance, loss of vegetation and chemical pollution that kills marine life.
The illegal plots also increase poaching of wildlife, raise the threat of wildfires started accidentally at campsites and put outdoor enthusiasts in harm's way. For instance, the U.S. Forest Service recently warned deer hunters to avoid two areas in Mendocino and Glenn counties until authorities could evict the marijuana growers.
Marijuana production on public lands in the United States has risen as the nation moves to further secure its borders and slow the movement of marijuana from Mexico. Mexican organized crime is behind the surge in such illegal plantings, according to law enforcement agencies.
Growers favor public property partly because if their plants are discovered, they can flee without leaving behind traceable evidence. But there are other reasons for the popularity of forests and parks.
"The nation's public lands have become a haven for this illegal activity due to the relatively few law enforcement personnel and the vast and often remote tracks of sparsely or uninhabited lands," said the U.S. Forest Service's 2005 marijuana report.
Authorities — from the White House down to the local level — are paying more attention to the expanding practice of marijuana farming on public lands, especially national forests in California. Federal agents say that about 4.5 million outdoor marijuana plants have been seized nationwide this year, largely from public lands. That pace is well ahead of the 2005 count.
The problem has become so pervasive that President Bush's drug czar visited the Sequoia National Forest in August to discuss why drug cartels are having such success.
"Every American should be outraged that parts of their public lands are being held hostage by illegal drug traffickers," John Walters, director of national drug-control policy, said at the time.
Appealing sites
More than half the marijuana plants detected on public lands nationwide are in California, which has eight of the 10 U.S. national forests with the highest number of pot plants confiscated. And 2006 looks to be another record year for seizures.
About 2.8 million marijuana plants were seized from outdoor farms in California through August, records show. About 75 percent of those seizures were on public lands.
The Cleveland National Forest, which cuts through central San Diego County, didn't rank among the national leaders in 2005, but authorities say about 13,000 plants were eradicated there last year.
Those Cleveland plantations caused ecological damage to 33 acres. Nationwide, the total reaches thousands of acres, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
In San Diego County, the multiagency Marijuana Eradication Team removed about 250,000 plants from large-scale outdoor farms so far this year. This is about 30 percent higher than last year but below the average of about 300,000 plants in each of the past five years.
Anti-narcotics experts say the annual seizure totals nationwide vary based on enforcement pressure, weather and planting trends within the multibillion-dollar marijuana industry. In 2005, for example, heavy spring rains likely discouraged some growers and probably accounted for the county's lower eradication totals.
Some authorities say the escalating number of marijuana seizures on public lands in California indicate their enforcement methods are becoming more effective.
Robin Schwanke, spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's Office, credits the rise to better surveillance and increased understanding of what areas the growers prefer.
Others say cash-strapped, thinly staffed enforcement agencies aren't the reason for the rising rate of marijuana busts.
"At a grand scale, I see no solution anytime soon," said Graber of the National Park Service. "At a local scale, the most we can hope for is that we harass (the growers) enough that they go somewhere else."
Relatively few marijuana farms are found on public lands closest to the U.S.-Mexico border because the presence of immigration agents deters many potential growers.
But a few miles to the north, "any place you can think of that there would be water, they are growing it," said Greg Meese, the patrol captain for the Cleveland National Forest.
Lasting degradation
To make way for their crops, pot growers routinely use pesticides to remove swaths of native shrubs and grasses. Their plots often spread over dozens of acres. Taller trees are left as cover against aerial checks by police helicopters.
In a forest, the low-level plants keep dirt from washing into streams during rainfall. After the marijuana is harvested and winter rains come, the barren patches are highly susceptible to soil erosion. The result is that waterways in some of California's most pristine watersheds become polluted.
Marijuana growers also dam streams, haul in small pumps and run plastic irrigation lines through the forest to water their crops. The result can be dramatic changes to creeks that native fish rely on.
Often, the marijuana operations are highly sophisticated and may take weeks to set up.
A few years ago, Meese discovered an irrigation system that included pools up to 15 feet wide and just as deep.
"The head pressure in the (marijuana) garden hose was better than what you typically find in your home," he said.
Growers commonly import rat poison to kill the critters that like to eat their profit-generating plants. They also use lots of chemical fertilizers to keep their plants green. These substances can easily contaminate nearby creeks, promoting algae blooms that can use up the oxygen in the water and kill fish.
In one case, Graber said his first clue about the presence of a major marijuana operation was extremely high nitrate levels that were detected during routine water monitoring.
A pot farm's most visible impact is trash. Marijuana growers commonly live with their plants for weeks or months at a time. At a large farm, the litter can weigh several tons and include miles of irrigation pipe.
"The camps themselves are filthy. There is garbage everywhere — anything you can think of that you would generate in your home . . . including human waste," Meese said.
Threats to wildlife compound the other environmental concerns.
"At almost every (garden) we come across, there is some evidence of poaching, whether it be poaching salmon out of the creeks in Butte County or poaching deer," said Patrick Foy, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game.
In one instance, law enforcement agents found a camp where the tenants were making jerky out of three foxes they'd caught.
"These folks already have complete disregard for the law . . . so when anything that would serve as a food source comes by, they often take advantage of that," Foy said.
But perhaps the most serious danger is to unsuspecting hikers, hunters and mountain bikers who cross into marijuana farms, some of which are protected by booby traps and barbed wire. Most farms are well off the beaten path, but reports of run-ins between the public and growers have become routine.
On Sept. 30, for example, a hunter in the Mendocino National Forest said he stumbled onto the edge of a marijuana patch and found four men pointing rifles at him. They started firing but the hunter escaped unharmed, according to a Forest Service report.
Such incidents usually lead to raids by law enforcement teams. Once authorities haul away and destroy the marijuana plants, they remove the leftover garbage and leave the land to repair itself over time.
That was the case this summer on Palomar Mountain, where crews took out the trash and let nature take its course. Within several weeks, the native vegetation was resprouting, said Jim Dice, a senior environmental scientist for California State Parks.
"Any active restoration," he said, "would probably be more damaging than leaving it alone."
Newshawk: 420AM&PM - 420 Magazine
Source: SignOnSanDiego (CA)
Pubdate: October 15, 2006
Author: Mike Lee
Copyright: © 2006 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Website: SignOnSanDiego.com > Breaking news from The San Diego Union-Tribune: Classifieds, entertainment, sports, hotels and visitor information
What officials initially thought might be a few hundred plants ended up being 15,000. Police also found two men and a woman tending the plots, whose yield would have been worth $60 million on the street.
The crop tenders scampered into the woods, leaving behind trash and terraces they had formed on the hillside. Initial repairs to such an area can cost taxpayers $10,000 per acre for staff time and a helicopter to haul away garbage, said the Office of National Drug Control Policy. On average, ten acres are fouled for every acre of marijuana planted in forests and on other public lands, the agency said.
"The whole process of these marijuana plantations brutalizes the landscape," said David Graber, Pacific West regional science chief for the National Park Service.
The outdoor growing season for marijuana is coming to a close for the year, but some scars left by clandestine pot farms will take months to heal. Anti-drug agencies must deal with tons of trash, human waste, erosion and other forms of soil disturbance, loss of vegetation and chemical pollution that kills marine life.
The illegal plots also increase poaching of wildlife, raise the threat of wildfires started accidentally at campsites and put outdoor enthusiasts in harm's way. For instance, the U.S. Forest Service recently warned deer hunters to avoid two areas in Mendocino and Glenn counties until authorities could evict the marijuana growers.
Marijuana production on public lands in the United States has risen as the nation moves to further secure its borders and slow the movement of marijuana from Mexico. Mexican organized crime is behind the surge in such illegal plantings, according to law enforcement agencies.
Growers favor public property partly because if their plants are discovered, they can flee without leaving behind traceable evidence. But there are other reasons for the popularity of forests and parks.
"The nation's public lands have become a haven for this illegal activity due to the relatively few law enforcement personnel and the vast and often remote tracks of sparsely or uninhabited lands," said the U.S. Forest Service's 2005 marijuana report.
Authorities — from the White House down to the local level — are paying more attention to the expanding practice of marijuana farming on public lands, especially national forests in California. Federal agents say that about 4.5 million outdoor marijuana plants have been seized nationwide this year, largely from public lands. That pace is well ahead of the 2005 count.
The problem has become so pervasive that President Bush's drug czar visited the Sequoia National Forest in August to discuss why drug cartels are having such success.
"Every American should be outraged that parts of their public lands are being held hostage by illegal drug traffickers," John Walters, director of national drug-control policy, said at the time.
Appealing sites
More than half the marijuana plants detected on public lands nationwide are in California, which has eight of the 10 U.S. national forests with the highest number of pot plants confiscated. And 2006 looks to be another record year for seizures.
About 2.8 million marijuana plants were seized from outdoor farms in California through August, records show. About 75 percent of those seizures were on public lands.
The Cleveland National Forest, which cuts through central San Diego County, didn't rank among the national leaders in 2005, but authorities say about 13,000 plants were eradicated there last year.
Those Cleveland plantations caused ecological damage to 33 acres. Nationwide, the total reaches thousands of acres, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
In San Diego County, the multiagency Marijuana Eradication Team removed about 250,000 plants from large-scale outdoor farms so far this year. This is about 30 percent higher than last year but below the average of about 300,000 plants in each of the past five years.
Anti-narcotics experts say the annual seizure totals nationwide vary based on enforcement pressure, weather and planting trends within the multibillion-dollar marijuana industry. In 2005, for example, heavy spring rains likely discouraged some growers and probably accounted for the county's lower eradication totals.
Some authorities say the escalating number of marijuana seizures on public lands in California indicate their enforcement methods are becoming more effective.
Robin Schwanke, spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's Office, credits the rise to better surveillance and increased understanding of what areas the growers prefer.
Others say cash-strapped, thinly staffed enforcement agencies aren't the reason for the rising rate of marijuana busts.
"At a grand scale, I see no solution anytime soon," said Graber of the National Park Service. "At a local scale, the most we can hope for is that we harass (the growers) enough that they go somewhere else."
Relatively few marijuana farms are found on public lands closest to the U.S.-Mexico border because the presence of immigration agents deters many potential growers.
But a few miles to the north, "any place you can think of that there would be water, they are growing it," said Greg Meese, the patrol captain for the Cleveland National Forest.
Lasting degradation
To make way for their crops, pot growers routinely use pesticides to remove swaths of native shrubs and grasses. Their plots often spread over dozens of acres. Taller trees are left as cover against aerial checks by police helicopters.
In a forest, the low-level plants keep dirt from washing into streams during rainfall. After the marijuana is harvested and winter rains come, the barren patches are highly susceptible to soil erosion. The result is that waterways in some of California's most pristine watersheds become polluted.
Marijuana growers also dam streams, haul in small pumps and run plastic irrigation lines through the forest to water their crops. The result can be dramatic changes to creeks that native fish rely on.
Often, the marijuana operations are highly sophisticated and may take weeks to set up.
A few years ago, Meese discovered an irrigation system that included pools up to 15 feet wide and just as deep.
"The head pressure in the (marijuana) garden hose was better than what you typically find in your home," he said.
Growers commonly import rat poison to kill the critters that like to eat their profit-generating plants. They also use lots of chemical fertilizers to keep their plants green. These substances can easily contaminate nearby creeks, promoting algae blooms that can use up the oxygen in the water and kill fish.
In one case, Graber said his first clue about the presence of a major marijuana operation was extremely high nitrate levels that were detected during routine water monitoring.
A pot farm's most visible impact is trash. Marijuana growers commonly live with their plants for weeks or months at a time. At a large farm, the litter can weigh several tons and include miles of irrigation pipe.
"The camps themselves are filthy. There is garbage everywhere — anything you can think of that you would generate in your home . . . including human waste," Meese said.
Threats to wildlife compound the other environmental concerns.
"At almost every (garden) we come across, there is some evidence of poaching, whether it be poaching salmon out of the creeks in Butte County or poaching deer," said Patrick Foy, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game.
In one instance, law enforcement agents found a camp where the tenants were making jerky out of three foxes they'd caught.
"These folks already have complete disregard for the law . . . so when anything that would serve as a food source comes by, they often take advantage of that," Foy said.
But perhaps the most serious danger is to unsuspecting hikers, hunters and mountain bikers who cross into marijuana farms, some of which are protected by booby traps and barbed wire. Most farms are well off the beaten path, but reports of run-ins between the public and growers have become routine.
On Sept. 30, for example, a hunter in the Mendocino National Forest said he stumbled onto the edge of a marijuana patch and found four men pointing rifles at him. They started firing but the hunter escaped unharmed, according to a Forest Service report.
Such incidents usually lead to raids by law enforcement teams. Once authorities haul away and destroy the marijuana plants, they remove the leftover garbage and leave the land to repair itself over time.
That was the case this summer on Palomar Mountain, where crews took out the trash and let nature take its course. Within several weeks, the native vegetation was resprouting, said Jim Dice, a senior environmental scientist for California State Parks.
"Any active restoration," he said, "would probably be more damaging than leaving it alone."
Newshawk: 420AM&PM - 420 Magazine
Source: SignOnSanDiego (CA)
Pubdate: October 15, 2006
Author: Mike Lee
Copyright: © 2006 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Website: SignOnSanDiego.com > Breaking news from The San Diego Union-Tribune: Classifieds, entertainment, sports, hotels and visitor information
