Marijuana Farming on Public Lands: Where's the Outrage?

From Coach Silva-Brown, I learned that the Mendocino National Forest has been taken over by marijuana farmers.

Think about this for a minute.  If there was a commercial (that is, legitimate and tax-paying) operation of similar scale in a national park or forest, howls of outrage would be coming from conservation organizations. 

There was a brief mention of the problem in the March/April 2006 edition of Sierra Magazine, including the detail that one pot farm cost $500,000 to clean up.

On Friday, July 13, 2007, the Redding paper covered "Operation Alesia", the 2007  multi-agency marijuana eradication operation on public lands in Shasta County. John P. Walters pulled the terrorist card, instead of homing in on the environmental costs. Boing Boing (of course) picked up on the dumb headline, not the real story:

Bernie Weingardt, regional forester for the Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Region, said the 28,000 acres believed to house illegal marijuana grows on national forest land throughout the state would cost more than $300 million to revive.

"These lands must be cleaned and restored," he said.

His estimate is based on a National Park Service study that found it costs $11,000 per acre to pull the plants, clear irrigation systems, reshape any terracing and replant native vegetation, said Mike Odle, Forest Service spokesman.

You can see the devastation on the Redding Photo Gallery One Two.  Where is the outrage from environmental organizations and friends of the national parks?  Below the fold, collections of stories from different parks.

An editorial from the Ukiah Daily Journal talked about the state affairs in Mendocino county:

As sad a comment as it is on the state of the illegal pot growing industry in this county, we hope local residents will heed the warning of our national forest rangers to beware the forests this summer.

As they have had to do in the past few years, the rangers at the Mendocino National Forest have issued an advisory to anyone camping or hiking in the national forests not to ignore signs of pot gardens. They can be dangerous.

Rangers warn not to enter a pot garden, don't go exploring in one and certainly don't try to find the growers or interfere with their operation.

The only thing to do is leave the area immediately and call law enforcement.

[snip]

So if you're in the national forest this summer watch out for: isolated tents or trailers where no recreational activities are located, a pattern of auto or truck traffic or cars and trucks parked in isolated areas on a regular basis, unusual structures and signs of gardening - buckets, fertilizers, garden tools etc. These could mean a marijuana garden nearby.

If you think you've seen one, walk away and call the Mendocino National Forest rangers at 530-934-3316.

The National Parks Traveler Blog, written by Kurt Repanshek, addressed the issue on March 9, 2007.  The Chief Ranger for Sequoia, J. D. Swed, said

"It's the biggest threat to wilderness that we have in this park. Wouldn't I be irresponsible not to do this?" he said.

On October 16, 2006, the San Diego Union-Tribune published

Forest pot farms a menace to land, by Mike Lee

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.

[snip]

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.

From the March-April 2006 edition of Sierra Magazine

Weed Whacking
Parks provide seclusion, sunshine, and fresh water--for drug lords

Remote, untamed, and solitary, the backcountry areas of our national parks have always attracted the most ardent nature-lovers. But these days, a new group of people are answering the call of the wild--drug traffickers. Drug cultivation and smuggling are fast draining the resources of the woefully underfunded National Park Service, as rangers find themselves confronting armed heroin smugglers and booby-trapped marijuana gardens in the once-tranquil wilderness.

The problem isn't new, but it has grown worse since border controls were tightened after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Hardest hit are Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California, which abut a prime pot-growing region. Two Mexican drug cartels have operations there, and in 2004 rangers found more than 44,000 marijuana plants within the parks' boundaries. These large-scale growers terrace the land, making it more vulnerable to invasive species, clear out native trees and plants, divert water sources, poach wildlife, and saturate the soil with pesticides and fertilizers.

By the time park workers had finished cleaning up the irrigation pipes, spent rifle casings, garbage, fertilizer, and human waste left behind by growers, half a million dollars of park funds had gone up in smoke.

If that wasn't enough of a nightmare, there's also the possibility of visitors running into camouflaged drug smugglers toting weapons. That hasn't happened yet, but in 2001, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument ranger Kris Eggle was gunned down by a fleeing smuggler. While border areas like Organ Pipe in Arizona and Big Bend National Park in Texas seem like obvious narcotics crossroads, the Park Service has also disrupted marijuana-, heroin-, and cocaine-smuggling operations at Biscayne National Park in Florida and Acadia National Park in Maine. --D.S.

NPR's Morning edition had a report on the burden of marijuana farming in San Francisco-area parks, first aired on Sept 2006.

In March, 2003, the National Park Service Digest reported on clean-up efforts in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks:

On March 1st, park law enforcement and natural resource staff completed a month-long project to restore natural conditions to 166 acres of wilderness areas damaged by marijuana farming. In a cooperative effort with the California Conservation Corps (CCC), the California Army National Guard, and the California Air National Guard, crews removed 4,650 pounds (157 bags) of garbage and hose, camp infrastructure, and 5.3 miles of irrigation hose from thirty-one gardens and seven camps that were occupied by illegal growers in 2002.

Park staff also documented that 5,176 pounds of fertilizer, three gallons of pesticides (predominantly malathion), and ten pounds of rodenticides had been used in one five-acre area. More than 300 small Coleman propane canisters and one five gallon propane tank were removed from the site, and crews cleaned up and filled in six garbage pits.

Illegal marijuana cultivation in Sequoia National Park has increased dramatically since 2001 -- the NPS has eradicated more than 113,000 marijuana plants in Sequoia NP since 2001. While a tremendous amount of work was accomplished in this project, much remains to be done. It is estimated that slightly more than half of the known gardens have been restored.

Restoration work is limited to a November to February window due to the presence of armed growers during the March to October growing season, as well the hazards created by extreme summer heat, rattlesnakes, and dry, slippery slopes.

The Christian Science Monitor published a story on "Drug Cartels in National Parks" on June 10, 2003:

[Rangers] come across evidence of large-scale activity that officials call the biggest threat to national parks since their creation over a century ago. Beside an abandoned camp scattered with trash and human waste, lie empty bags of fertilizer, gardening tools, irrigation tubing - and spent rifle casings. Illegal marijuana farming, once the province of small-time growers, has become big business on the nation's most visited public land: national parks.

"This is massive-scale agriculture that is threatening the very mission of the national parks, which is to preserve the natural environment in perpetuity and provide for safe public recreation," says Bill Tweed, chief naturalist at Sequoia National Park. "[Growers] are killing wildlife, diverting streams, introducing nonnative plants, creating fire and pollution hazards, and bringing the specter of violence. For the moment, we are failing both parts of our mission, and that is tragic."

For decades, park rangers have stumbled into small cannabis stands. But now, desperation and opportunity have combined to move larger-scale illicit marijuana farming to Sequoia, Glacier, Big Bend, and other jewels of the American landscape.

The Kaweah Commonwealth OnLine (local paper serving the Sequoia-Kings Canyon area) covered the eradication effort in 2004:

Pot gardens flourish  in Kaweah Country

‘Operation No Grow’ eradicates more than 13,000 plants in latest park raid

   Tulare County’s marijuana farming is big business, creating bigger crop yields in recent years than oranges. The scorched, dry hillsides surrounding Three Rivers have become a Mecca for marijuana cultivation, providing seclusion, year-round water sources, natural coverage, and plenty of warm sunshine.

   Huge marijuana plots are being planted on public and private lands. Huge marijuana plots are being tended by armed guards. And huge marijuana plots are being ripped out by local, state, and federal agencies.

   These illicit operations — managed by Mexican cartels who have discovered it is more profitable to grow the pot here rather than smuggle it across the border — have created a growing danger to hikers, anglers, and hunters who could inadvertently stumble into marijuana garden and find themselves at gunpoint. In addition, the National Park Service is seriously distressed about the damage to the natural resources as growers wantonly destroy native vegetation, create terraces and depressions to accommodate the plants, divert waterways utilizing extensive irrigation equipment, kill wildlife, dig trash pits and subsequently fill them with refuse, and use massive amounts of fertilizer, pesticides, and other poisons.

   On Monday, Aug. 2, National Park Service rangers — with assistance from the Department of Justice’s California Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), the California National Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-Riverside unit, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office — destroyed a fledgling pot plantation near the Mineral King Road in Sequoia National Park that consisted of 13,452 plants with an estimated street value of nearly $54 million upon maturity. This is the largest marijuana eradication so far this season.

   In addition to the marijuana plants, rangers and officers seized a loaded semi-automatic shotgun, a .177-caliber pellet rifle and, providing an indication that other weapons were also on site, 30-30 rifle rounds, .45 pistol rounds, and .44 magnum rounds. It is estimated that the pot farm has been under cultivation for at least two years.

   A camera crew from Univision, a Spanish-language television network, filmed the operation from aboard the CAMP helicopter and it was broadcast that evening.

Other local raids within the past month include:    

                 

• July 13— In the East Fork canyon of the Kaweah River in Sequoia National Park, 3,800 plants from five separate gardens were eradicated by park rangers and ICE.
•    July 20— Tulare County sheriff’s deputies eradicated 7,699 plants from a garden near Highway 245, four miles below Badger.
•    July 29— Over 500 plants were seized during the raid of a plot in the North Fork drainage of the Kaweah River. Sequoia Park rangers were assisted by ICE, CAMP, and DEA agents.
•    August 3— Eight garden plots spread out over a two-mile area were destroyed by sheriff’s deputies and CAMP personnel in the remote Devils Canyon area on upper South Fork Drive, just outside the boundary of Sequoia National Park. The raid netted 4,539 plants that would have had an estimated street value of $18 million.
•    Alexandra Picavet, Sequoia-Kings Canyon public information officer, attributes the increase in seizures this early in the season to an earlier start in surveillance and better intelligence. The marijuana-growing season starts in mid-April with harvest ending prior to the first frost.
•    Statewide, more than 70,000 plants, worth an estimated $264 million, have been seized, along with more than 30 weapons. Arrests, however, are few as the garden guards cut their losses and scatter into the forest with just the guns on their back at the first sign of law enforcement.
   

 

On September 10, 2004, the Kaweah paper again covered the issue:

Hot Pot Spot
Latest garden is largest yet

If it’s September, it must be harvest time. And it’s not corn or cotton, but in Tulare County, if marijuana was a legal crop, it would be a top-producing commodity.  

[snip]

The marijuana farming operation was well-financed as evidenced by the numerous encampments. Several acres of underbrush had been removed to provide cover for the pot plants.    Firearms and other weapons were seized along with evidence that hundreds of pounds of fertilizers and pesticides had been used.

[snip]

In addition to the season-long destruction to, and damage of, natural resources, the illicit pot-farming operations have created a growing danger to people who could inadvertently walk into the vicinity of a guarded garden.    

It is speculated that those who tend the gardens become quite territorial this time of year because their “paychecks” or “end-of-season bonuses” largely depend on the successful removal and subsequent delivery of the illegal harvest.    

The pot plantations have mostly been found between 2,500 and 6,000 feet elevation in the vicinity of various year-round water sources. Harvesting must be completed before the nighttime temperatures dip to the near-freezing level.

The National Park Service Digest wrote on March 2005:

Over the past several years multi-millions of dollars of illegally grown marijuana has been eradicated from Sequoia National Park by park rangers. Each illegal grow site costs thousands of dollars to secure, remove the plants, trash and equipment, and restore to a natural state. The untold damage of chemical pesticides and fertilizers on the land and water sources will take years to restore, and may never again return to a pristine condition.

Comments

[Joel Sax]

The story reminds me of one of the chief reasons why I favor the legalization of marijuana: if this were legal, their activities would be out in the public domain. We could ~sue~ them for the costs of restoring the environment.

Likewise, we could sue them for addiction and make them feel the heft of the cost of the public health problem they create.