ARCATA, Calif. — It took the death of a small, rare member of the weasel family to focus the attention of Northern California’s marijuana growers on the impact that their huge and expanding activities were having on the environment.
The animal, a Pacific fisher, had been poisoned by an anticoagulant in rat poisons like d-Con. Since then, six other poisoned fishers have been found. Two endangered spotted owls tested positive. Mourad W. Gabriel, a scientist at the University of California, Davis, concluded that the contamination began when marijuana growers in deep forests spread d-Con to protect their plants from wood rats.
That news has helped growers acknowledge, reluctantly, what their antagonists in law enforcement have long maintained: like industrial logging before it, the booming business of marijuana is a threat to forests whose looming dark redwoods preside over vibrant ecosystems.
Hilltops have been leveled to make room for the crop. Bulldozers start landslides on erosion-prone mountainsides. Road and dam construction clogs some streams with dislodged soil. Others are bled dry by diversions. Little water is left for salmon whose populations have been decimated by logging.
Some marijuana growers are following the letter of state law. Other growers are operating totally outside the law. Mountain tops have been leveled to grow crops. Growers divert rivers and streams to water their own crops so that water sources become mere trickles.
What will California do about this environmental juggernaut? The fact that so many ‘farms’ are unregulated is part of the problem. Additionally, federal enforcement is inconsistent. None of the farmers, even those doing the right thing, can talk because what they are doing is federally illegal, not illegal in the state of California.
Change needs to happen. The area in Humboldt County is already an environmentally stressed area because of years of clear cutting in the logging industry. Flora, fauna and stream are all in crisis status because of Mary Jane who sure isn’t taking anyone to paradise these days, as the old song implies, at least environmentally speaking.
Where do states rights land on this one? Should the feds come in to protect the environment? Would we then be at war with California? This is simply not a good thing, any way you slice it.
This has been a problem in some of California’s state parks for a couple decades at least. A friend of mine lived in Mendocino and said that she had to be careful about which trails to hike in nearby state parks or she’d be met by an armed guard protecting his marijuana crop. As you said, there are many issues involve here.
One would think that making the crop legal would drive down the price of growing it, but California’s real estate is expensive and the state parks are free for the armed taking apparently.
should there be federal raids to clean up this mess? Are there going to be war lords guariding these pot plantations?
How about California? Why doesn’t it force regulations on some of these skofflaws?
That is absolutely disgusting. These people are, in effect, doing a sort of strip mining of the hilltops. And, in a state where there are often major squabbles over water for traditional farms and ranches, how can California just stand by in the face of what is happening to water resources up there?
It sure doesn’t sound like much is being done about the problem, does it?
Very upsetting 🙁
That area of California cultivates marijuana for the “medical marijuana” industry in California. Those people operative under State guidelines. In my opinion, the damage to the environment is being done by those who are there to make a quick profit. However, since it is a violation of Federal law to grow the crop, everyone there is constantly looking over their shoulders and probably dislikes the outsiders for shining a big light on the problems mentioned in this article.
Heh! THAT’S the way to win the “war on drugs.” Get the environmentalists mad at them.