RUIN, DEGREDATION LEFT BY POT GROWERS

An Ecological Disaster in the Making

Considered among area law enforcement agencies to be the most violent
crime against local ecology, the far-reaching effects of marijuana
growth on national public lands are largely unknown and unmitigated.

"For the most part people don't realize. They haven't seen,
firsthand, the resource damage, the poaching and litter, the
chemicals and homicide," said Fish and Game Capt. Nathaniel Arnold.
"People may hear of numbers of plants eradicated, but they don't
understand what that means in relation to wildlife and their habitat.

"This is a crime where the victim has no voice; the environment, the
animals don't have a voice. We have to speak for them."

Enter a grow site and the scene is routinely the same time and again:
a large garden, coils of irrigation hose, chemicals and toxins, a
campsite strewn with garbage, poached animal carcasses, and a burning
candle of the patron saint of drug dealers.

This patterned ecological footprint growers leave creates a
multifaceted environmental catastrophe that agents say reflects a
stone thrown into a pool. The stone, or center point, is the garden
and the rings spreading from that center, countless ripple effects on
the fragile ecological balance.

"The environmental impact these growers wreak on our ecosystem is
outrageous" said Erica Stuart, public information officer for the
Madera County Sheriff's Department.

Stuart has participated in dozens of raids, but the job became
personal when one took her through a favorite hiking spot of hers and
her father. "For me personally, it's like, 'you've got to be kidding;
this is my playground.' I was absolutely livid," she said.

"This is about a drug cartel moving into your backyard and destroying
anything that is going to interfere with their business. The lives of
every living species in this region are in danger."

The Ripples

Typically the growing season for cannabis begins after snowmelt,
around April or May. Growers will then move onto a plot to set up
camp and plant. Tending the garden, they remain to guard the
marijuana until harvest time, September through October. During the
roughly five-month period it takes to successfully plant, grow and
harvest millions of dollars in marijuana, human waste and garbage
accumulates. When the crop is processed and the garden abandoned
until another planting season, the waste remains.

Left to a multiagency and volunteer effort, waste is either "humped
out" (packed out on someone's back) or hauled out by helicopter if
the area is too remote.

"What these growers take months to hike in, we have to remove in a
day," said Arnold.

The constraints to reclaim the land -- which simply refers to the
removal of the garden's infrastructure -- include the high cost of
helicopter support, lack of manpower and seasonal weather. The Forest
Service estimates the cost to clean a garden is upwards of $11,000
per acre. Consequently, out of the approximately 50 percent of the
known gardens eradicated, only 10 percent of those are reclaimed,
said Kevin Mayer, Forest Service drug agent and investigator.

Despite the high cost, the Fish and Game Department is committed to
their mission. "With the budget problems, it's tough," said Forest
Service Chief, John Baker. "But, for the security of the forest and
sustainable habitat for wildlife, this is incumbent to us."

In Sequoia and Sierra National Forests 621,250 plants have been
eradicated this year alone -- that's nearly $2.5 billion in street value.

Mayer said that approximately 2,000 acres of California forest has
been essentially bulldozed for marijuana planting this year -- an
area roughly the size of the city of Fresno.

Part of the "bulldozing" effect is created by the hundreds of feet of
hose brought in for an intricate irrigation system. Gardens are
always planted near a water source from which growers siphon. Natural
mountains streams are common choice.

The water is dammed and for convenience, fertilizer (high in nitrate)
and other chemicals are dumped directly into the source, which is
then distributed to the garden.

These contaminated mountain waters not only become a danger to
wildlife, they feed into national forest headwaters that eventually
flow into residential faucets and seep into the subsurface water table.

The hose is also left behind.

"It's the nature of these chemicals to percolate into the water and
soil very quickly, so time is of the essence," said Baker of eradication.

With the small percentage of gardens reclaimed, restoration --
primarily the reintroduction of native plant life (water takes years
to restore) -- is another story.

"We could dedicate 50 agents from our department to this full time
and it wouldn't be enough," said Arnold.

Water and Waste Are Not All

Antifreeze, an attractant to wildlife, but deadly when consumed, is
typically spread along the ground bordering the gardens.
Accomplishing its purpose, it poisons and kills small animals like
squirrels that encroach upon lush gardens and places predators like
owls, lynx or bobcats, at risk also. A common Mexican rat poison,
Ratone, with toxins not approved in the U.S., is also used. Spread in
the dirt, these toxins eventually seep into the soil.

Growers, living in the remoteness of the forest which provides ideal
soil, water access and protection, cook with propane camp stoves.
Their typical season's stay equates to roughly 4,500 meals, which
necessitates several 20-pound tanks of propane. Poaching often
subsidizes the diet.

"This is where we see a direct effect on our constituents," Arnold
said of the assault on animals. "We have hunters come in here who are
doing things the right way by getting permits, who ask us where all
the deer are."

The story does not end there.

Virtually all growers are armed to protect their cash crop. Dozens of
incidents between armed growers and hikers, law enforcement
personnel, hunters or land owners have been reported in the past year.

Mostly tucked into hollowed trees, shrines with candles dedicated to
the Mexican folklore figure Malverde are almost always burning at the campsite.

Malverde -- widely considered the patron saint of drug deals -- can
be equated to a Mexican Robin Hood. A legend from the early 1900s,
Malverde reportedly stole from the rich and gave to the poor, but was
captured by police in 1909. He is not recognized by the Catholic
Church as a saint, but that may reinforce his image as a criminal of
the people. His image is generally a tip-off to law enforcement to
illegal activity.

An Explosive Combination

The close proximity of the candles, firearms, nitrous fertilizer,
propane and tinder makes for an explosive hazard that is not only a
potential source for wildfire, but also what firefighters risk
stumbling upon every time they fight forest fires.

Both Mayer and Cal Fire information officer Karen Guillemin said
their departments brief firefighters on the hazards of marijuana
gardens, but amid heavy smoke, they can be difficult to spot.

Standing at the base of the recent Cascadel Fire, which ran through a
garden, Mayer waited to enter for investigation. He said the danger
to his department's firefighters is both frustrating and stressful.
"It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when," he said of
incidents related to fire spreading in marijuana gardens.

According to Stuart, narcotic agents were sent in as the fires were
contained to eradicate as many as four plots strewn with dangerous chemicals.

While Stuart said the reports received from the public have been
instrumental in finding and eradicating gardens, she questioned the
lack of anger from community members.

"This is happening in places where people go for recreation. What is
it going to take for the community to get it? Where is the outrage?"
she said. "If the community's involved and diligent we can get these
guys out of here.

"As people pick a new place for recreation because of the danger or
loss of land, I hope they stop and think of the wildlife that has no
clue and or nowhere else to go."

Arnold, thankful for what he said is a recent shift toward
environmental awareness, reiterated Stuart's call to active land
stewardship. "The beauty, if there is any, is that everyone agrees
this is a big issue," he said. "The environment belongs to us all.

"This is it. We have one shot. When this land is gone, it's gone. I
don't know about you, but someday when I have kids I want them to be
able to enjoy this land."