POLICE GOING GREEN WITH THIS YEAR'S POT ERADICATION PROGRAM

Police are going green with this year's helicopter-aided marijuana
eradication operation, which began across Vancouver Island yesterday.

Illicit backwoods grow-ops damage the environment, said Cpl. Greg Cox,
Island District RCMP communications officer.

For example, streams are often diverted to the grow-ops to provide for
convenient watering, he said. Native plants get trampled by people carving
trails in and out of the sites.

"But it's also the chemicals used in the production of these operations,"
said Cox. "There are growth-enhancing chemicals [and] pesticides being
introduced into pristine lands. Then, there's the garbage at the
post-production sites, the empty or half-used bags of fertilizer and
garbage bags, all that sort of thing, the stuff that's left over after
they're done harvesting."

The Wilderness Committee weighed in on the issue, too, with Victoria
campaign director Ken Wu pointing out that his organization is always
concerned about non-native species such as scotch broom, holly and purple
loosestrife.

"Marijuana is not a native species to Vancouver Island and B.C. forests,"
Wu said with a laugh.

"Now, they're not knocking down whole tracts of forest, like they do in
pure agriculture, to grow marijuana. My understanding is when it's grown
outdoors, it's grown in patches in the forest, in which case you'd
eliminate the understory and the native plants and the animals that live on
those native plants in those areas," said Wu.

Cox said that the size and location of the grow-ops varies greatly but that
some sites are "quite sizable." In 2004, a police, RCMP and military task
force on marijuana found a grow-op near Port Hardy that was about the size
of two football fields, according to officers.

This week, the Integrated Marijuana Eradication Team will move on outdoor
grow-ops, which are often deep in the bush on Crown land, using
intelligence collected beforehand.

The team, which consists of members of the Saanich and Victoria police
departments, Island District RCMP and the Canadian Forces, uses military
and police helicopters from Comox. The military contribution helps them get
to grow-ops in otherwise inaccessible locations, Cox said.

Last summer, the team found and destroyed 16,500 plants from more than 200
sites.

Cox said the team's work won't be limited to Vancouver Island and could
include some of the Gulf Islands.

He added that the operation will continue as long as is necessary to
eradicate all of the grow-ops they know about or come across.