Million wild marijuana plants destroyed in Columbia County

Associated Press

PORTAGE, Wis. (AP) Sheriff's deputies armed with machetes and weed
whackers uprooted more than a million wild marijuana plants in an annual
''ditch weed'' eradication effort.

The tip on the patch destroyed Wednesday came from a farmer who didn't know
wild marijuana was growing in a pasture until he saw several uninvited
guests poking around his property.

The plants would have been worth $500 to $800 per pound if harvested and
sold, sheriff's Detective Wayne Smith said.

''We'll take all of this to a location where we will allow it to rot,''
Smith said.

Three or four fields of this size likely exist in Columbia County and there
are hundreds of smaller plots where the plants are thriving, officials said.

''It's all over. We have it on public hunting grounds, farms, ditch
lines,'' Sheriff Seven Rowe said. ''It's a constant struggle to eradicate
it.''

The county's immense wild marijuana population is attributed to hemp
production in the 1940s for rope and fiber.

''Seeds can lay and germinate for up to seven years,'' Smith said.

After leaving the pasture barren of marijuana, the group shifted to another
nearby field. Plants numbering 318,182 there. Later, they visited one last
site with a smaller number of the weeds.

Those harvesting the wild marijuana are ''not just using it for their own
use,'' sheriff's detective Rober Brandner said. ''They are taking it and
they're selling it for profit.''

The eradication efforts are expensive, Smith said.

''Just about everyone here is on overtime. It's expensive for us to be
here, but it's expensive for us to leave it too,'' Smith said.

Deputies expect to do another dozen similar clearings later this
year.

''It's going to be a long summer, unfortunately,'' Smith said.

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