POT CROPS BECOMING TAXING TO LAW ENFORCEMENT

Shannon Dininny Associated Press Oct. 2, 2005 12:00 AM ENTIAT, Wash. - Wary
eyes search for rattlesnakes in the desert grasses covering the dry hills.
The scorched remains of pine trees from an old wildfire tower overhead.
Then, hidden beneath a thicket of brush, bright green plants stand out.

In terraced dirt, nurtured by an elaborate sprinkler system, 465 marijuana
plants have been quietly tucked away, obscured by the winding branches of
vine maple and alder bushes.

It's a remote area of north-central Washington's Wenatchee National Forest,
bordering the Entiat Wildlife Refuge to the south and a rural farmer's
apple orchard to the east. advertisement

It's also a small find. Law enforcement officials have seized thousands of
plants in Washington state in recent months, forcing them to abandon their
ongoing battle against methamphetamine for days at a time.

Some blame the post-9/11 border crackdown that slowed the flow of
marijuana, premier pot known as B.C. Bud, from western Canada. Others say
increasing enforcement in California and Oregon is pushing pot production
by Mexican nationals north.

Regardless, these "gardens," as those who hunt the plants euphemistically
call them, are wreaking havoc on counties where huge tracts of open space
stretch resources thin.

Chelan County, home to the largest number of busts this year with about
35,000 plants confiscated, covers nearly 3,000 square miles, 80 percent of
it forested federal land.

Federal officials have recognized the increasing activity. The U.S.
Department of Justice noted in July that Mexican drug traffickers were
expanding their areas of operation, with continued growth expected in
isolated areas of Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

In particular, federal officials warned local police that central
Washington's rural interstate corridor on the east slope of the Cascade
Mountains was a growing link in the drug-trafficking chain.