MARIJUANA OPERATIONS ARE A GROWING PROBLEM IN FORESTS

Turkey hunters, trout anglers and morel pickers should go on high
alert if they find unusual diggings, tree cuttings or ramshackle huts
when roaming public lands in the weeks ahead.

That's because Mexican-based drug cartels have been using Wisconsin's
national forests and wildlife-management areas for large-scale
marijuana gardens in recent years. This includes an 8,000-plant
"grow" in Shawano County's Navarino State Wildlife Area in 2009, and
a 9,000-plant grow in 2008 in the Nicolet National Forest in Oconto County.

Law-enforcement officials last year also dismantled a 2,000-plant
operation deep inside the swamps of Buffalo County's Tiffany State
Wildlife Area along the Mississippi River. The area could be reached
only by boat.

Officials estimate each marijuana plant, which can grow taller than 6
feet, is worth $1,000 or more on the street. If so, the combined
Navarino, Nicolet and Tiffany seizures were worth $19 million.

Randy Stark, chief warden for the Department of Natural Resources,
said these marijuana operations are part of a national trend, with
some occurring in state and national parks. To deter those
responsible, the DNR is working with other states and federal
law-enforcement agencies, as well as the U.S. Forest Service and
Bureau of Land Management.

A bureau report said Mexican drug traffickers have expanded marijuana
cultivation in the United States since 2004. As the U.S. government
increased its efforts to stop smuggling and illegal immigration along
the U.S./Mexico border, cartels found it easier to grow marijuana on
our public lands than to transport it in large quantities across the border.

Between 2004 and 2008, the bureau alone seized 1.79 million marijuana
plants on lands it administers, with seizures more than doubling from
220,000 plants in 2004 to 473,771 in 2008.

A DNR staffer involved in the Navarino cleanup and investigation said
cartels plant marijuana strains designed for the short growing
season. Canadian officials have even found marijuana operations in
public forests of northwestern Ontario.

The staffer, who couldn't reveal his identity for security reasons,
said the cartels look for low-lying public lands far from homes and
buildings, with good water sources for irrigating the plants. He said
the groups are sophisticated and probably use satellite images to
find ideal growing sites. They usually key on stands of young aspen
(poplar), which is also ideal habitat for woodcock and ruffed grouse.

He said the workers are usually illegal immigrants who are coerced to
help. In late May, the work crews are dropped off late at night with
a camp boss, food, equipment and thousands of young marijuana plants
growing inside small cups, like those used to start tomato plants.

From there, they haul their gear at least a half-mile into thick
cover and set up a campsite beneath the woods' canopy, taking care to
stay far from service roads, dikes and trails. Officials estimate the
Navarino operation required 20 to 30 workers, who lived in shelters
built with plastic tarps stretched across log frameworks.

Work crews live in such sites for four months, and can't leave until
the crop is harvested in fall. They're resupplied periodically at
night along drop sites on isolated roads.

The workers use handsaws to quietly clear each growing site, cutting
trees waist-high and then smearing stumps with mud to make them less
visible from the air. They haul the felled trees to the clearings'
edge and stack them side by side like a palisades. They also dig deep
holes for refrigerating perishables, as well as small canals and
"silencer pits" for gasoline-powered generators and irrigation pumps.

The marijuana gardens, which numbered 12 at Navarino, aren't far from
the central camp, which sits like a hub between them. This is about
the only area where workers leave trails. When walking near roads,
they seldom follow the same path twice.

Even in Wisconsin, few people visit the interiors of large public
lands during summer because they're usually swarming with ticks,
black flies, deer flies and mosquitoes. Therefore, it's rare anyone
would spot such setups.

The DNR staffer said abandoned camps are littered with empty cans,
jugs and bottles that once held beer, water, bug spray, hand wash and
deer repellant for the marijuana plants. (Whitetails heavily browse
the leaves of untreated plants.) When cleaning the Navarino camp,
workers also found bones from poached deer.

When someone stumbles onto such sites, the workers typically just
drift into the woods, never to return. They're usually long gone
when authorities arrive.

Warden Stark warns hikers, hunters, campers, anglers, mushroom
hunters and berry pickers to stay alert if spotting unusual activity
on public lands this summer and fall. "Walk out the same way you
walked in," Stark said. "If possible, get the GPS coordinates, and
contact someone in law-enforcement as soon as possible."

Stark said workers at these sites usually avoid confrontations, but
some carry weapons. In addition, marijuana operations are sometimes
booby-trapped.

"We don't want to scare people and make them think our public lands
are unsafe, but we want everyone to be aware and stay alert," Stark
said. "We need their help to shut down these illegal operations. The
people doing this need to realize these are public lands and they're
not welcome here."