POT GROWING MAKES TROUBLE IN SHANGRI-LA

I've lived in a nice residential subdivision in the central part of
Trinity County for 22 years.

We've had our share of bad neighbor episodes (drunken speeders, fiery
disputes about road repair, etc.) but not like what we're having now.

In the last couple of years, there has been an influx of marijuana
growers into our subdivision. One of the growers has put up multiple
greenhouses on his two-acre parcel in addition to his one-acre
outdoor marijuana garden.

This grower is the epitome of a bad neighbor. He harasses the
neighbors with profanity, threats, horn honking, and speeding on our roads.

Numerous complaints to the sheriff and deputies and attempts at
getting a restraining order have come to nothing.

Gone is our peaceful life of the past.

I was complaining about my neighborhood situation to a friend who
lives in Hayfork. He looked at me musingly and said, "You think you
have a problem?

Have you visited Hayfork recently?" No, I hadn't been to Hayfork for
probably six years. "Well come down. I'll take you on a tour." The
next Saturday, I took the beautiful (and winding) drive to Hayfork,
enjoying the grand Hayfork valley opening out before me. Hayfork has
always had a Wild West feel; it's a town of individuals, and proud of
it. But as I drove down Highway 3 into town, something seemed
different, and not in a good way. The same businesses still looked
good. So what was wrong?

When I got to my friend's house, he asked, "Did you notice all the
marijuana grows when you were coming into town and on Main Street?"
No, I hadn't really.

OK - it was time for me to take "the tour." As we drove down Main
Street, I became increasingly aware of the problems that the
explosion of marijuana growing in Trinity County has brought to
Hayfork. Grows ranging from a quarter to a half acre were sprinkled
all along Main Street. The standard grow-in-town "look," I learned,
was a bamboo and tarp fence enclosing the grow next to the house.
(Some of the houses are condemned.) The yard often is filled with
tents or ancient RVs and decrepit school buses - "housing" for the
grow workers.

In the driveway are numerous vehicles, often brand new 4x4 pickups
and U-Haul trailers for transporting the crop. And then there is the
trash, often dumped everywhere. I saw larger multi-acre grows just on
the edge of the main part of town. They were obvious, because graded
and now-eroding roads scarred the hills, and log and slash piles from
timber clear-cut to make room for marijuana gardens were in plain
view from the highway.

I asked my friend how people lived in these dumps, so much like the
Hoovervilles from the Great Depression. What did they do about
electricity, water and sewage disposal?

He told me that some of the houses and of course the tents and
ancient RVs have no electricity, water or sewage facilities. So what
do the grow workers do for a bathroom? "You can imagine," he replied.

Now I could identify what created the different "look" in Hayfork:
Main Street and the Highway 3 margins of town were rife with growers'
"shanty towns" and all of the resultant mess that went with them. Why
does this situation exist?

According to my friend, Hayfork citizens have been voicing concerns
and calls to the county to address the numerous violations to
existing county codes regarding building, environmental protection,
sanitation, etc., to no avail.

We then drove through a couple of Hayfork's nicer subdivisions.
Interspersed among the nice homes were other homes with, no surprise,
the tell-tale fencing enclosing marijuana plots of anywhere from a
half acre to an acre.

One house and grounds now looked like a prison compound.

Enclosing it was a quarter mile of new cyclone fencing, covered with
new tarp. This effectively limited a view of the large outdoor grow
inside the fence. Posted along the fence were big signs: "No
Trespassing, Illegal to Enter this Property," as well as by other
signs "Beware: Security Dogs." The grower had come from out of
county, bought the land in the spring of 2010, put up the fence, and
accomplished the grow. I wondered where the money came from to fund
such large investment in property and materials.

I also wondered how an operation of this size, supposedly a
Proposition 215 (medical marijuana) grow, could exist in a
subdivision. But then I remembered. Our county has no regulations
restricting grows in residential neighborhoods. Witness my own
neighborhood problem with the commercial grower.

If we don't have regulations to deal with the explosion of marijuana
grows in our county, we all may be facing Hayfork's situation in the
near future.

As we drove on, I saw something that looked like huge circus tents.

I learned these were the processing tents for the marijuana harvest.
Surrounding them were five or more small tents where the harvest workers lived.

There was only one Porta-potty for the operation. There were three
large U-Haul trucks to take away the harvest, as well as the
ubiquitous pit bull guard dogs. And again, no electricity or water
for the grow workers.

The tents were only 200 feet from the picture window of the
neighbors' house, a beautiful new home. I learned that the residents
no longer take walks in the neighborhood because they have had pit
bull attacks and threatening behavior from the growers who have moved
in from out of county.

I was feeling pretty depressed with all I'd seen. I could well
understand the sadness in my friend's face as we passed so much
ruination of the beautiful Hayfork valley.

I asked him what he planned to do. He said he'd move if he could.

But all his money was tied up in his land and home. "It's not a place
to raise your kids, now. And I hear that all the time from my friends
and neighbors.

All I can say is, we have to raise awareness in the county about
where we are headed with this marijuana problem.

I wish everyone could come and see what Hayfork is dealing with. And
this isn't even Trinity Pines." Trinity Pines is a subdivision in
Trinity County, about 45 minutes south of Hayfork. It has been taken
over by marijuana growers, who have intimidated many of the original
residents into fleeing. The Trinity Journal and the Sheriff's Report
column regularly report the assaults, pit bull attacks, intimidation,
gunpoint hold-ups, and unexplained deaths in the Pines. The land has
been destroyed by clear-cutting for marijuana grows.

My friend won't drive there anymore, saying, "You don't want to go in
there without an armed police escort."

As I drove back over Hayfork Summit, I felt low. I was glad to get
back to the other side of the hill, to central Trinity County, where
it looked so peaceful.

I thought of what so many people have called Trinity County - our
Shangri-la. But I knew our lovely environment was already being
compromised. There is significant damage to the land and water by
unregulated and large-scale marijuana growing by out-of-county people.

The influx of nonresident growers and workers creates sanitation and
safety issues.

This is happening countywide. And it is happening right in our
residential neighborhoods. Most of us moved to Trinity County for the
peace, safety and beauty of this area, for us and for our children.

We need to protect our Shangri-la by getting involved and making sure
our county government knows we want them to take action on the
explosion of commercial marijuana growing and the problems that come with it.

If you are concerned, do what I am doing: attend the Planning
Commission and Board of Supervisors meetings and make your voice heard.

Evelyn Ward, an artist and educator, moved to Trinity County with her
family from the San Francisco Bay area 25 years ago. She lives in Lewiston.