Pot farms wreaking havoc on Northern California environment

[Liberal_in_LA]

Pot farms wreaking havoc on Northern California environment

Burgeoning marijuana growing operations are sucking millions of gallons of water from coho salmon lifelines and taking other environmental tolls, scientists say.



Wildlife technician Aaron Pole surveys a forest trashed by growers. Carbofuran, an insecticide lethal to humans in small doses, is found regularly at large-scale pot farms. Also flowing into the watershed are rodenticides, fungicides, diesel fuel and other pollutants (Genaro Molina, Los Angeles Times / November 15, 2012)

State scientists, grappling with an explosion of marijuana growing on the North Coast, recently studied aerial imagery of a small tributary of the Eel River, spawning grounds for endangered coho salmon and other threatened fish.

In the remote, 37-square-mile patch of forest, they counted 281 outdoor pot farms and 286 greenhouses, containing an estimated 20,000 plants — mostly fed by water diverted from creeks or a fork of the Eel. The scientists determined the farms were siphoning roughly 18 million gallons from the watershed every year, largely at the time when the salmon most need it.

"That is just one small watershed," said Scott Bauer, the state scientist in charge of the coho recovery on the North Coast for the Department of Fish and Game. "You extrapolate that for all the other tributaries, just of the Eel, and you get a lot of marijuana sucking up a lot of water.… This threatens species we are spending millions of dollars to recover."

The marijuana boom that came with the sudden rise of medical cannabis in California has wreaked havoc on the fragile habitats of the North Coast and other parts of California. With little or no oversight, farmers have illegally mowed down timber, graded mountaintops flat for sprawling greenhouses, dispersed poisons and pesticides, drained streams and polluted watersheds.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pot-enviro-20121223,0,2903043.story

[randome]

1. I thought pot fans were gentle folk trying to be closer to nature.

If only the government would get off our backs.

[Bonobo]

6. If everyone was allowed to grow what they needed, this wouldn't happen. nt

[Major Nikon]

11. They are allowed to grow their own

They don't even need a license. You are allowed to have at least 6 plants.

I don't think most people are going to go to that trouble if they can buy it.

[MH1]

56. Many of them will grow their own if they see that the stuff they buy is grown

with carbofuran and has other nasty environmental impacts.

Getting this information out there is a good thing.

Also pot farms should be regulated just like any other agriculture, to prevent this kind of crap. The problem is that generally agriculture isn't sufficiently regulated to protect the environment.

[kestrel91316]

68. Yes, we can grow our own with a recommendation/card.

But if you grow it outside it WILL be stolen because it's still very valuable on the open market. And miscreant anti-pot neighbors could make your life a living hell if they saw it, even if you have a recommendation/card.

The environmental problems are why I was so relieved to be able to successfully grow my own on my poorly situated balcony and in this ghastly climate (115F+ in summer sometimes).

[hobbit709]

7. The Mexican cartels are moving in, they don't care about anything except money, just

like the corporations.

Once again the fact that it is illegal means there is nothing regulating it.

Just like bathtub gin during prohibition.

[randome]

8. So should poisonous pesticides be made legal?

Then they could be better regulated.

Face it, people are not rational when it comes to marijuana. And from the descriptions of some of the people found managing these 'farms', it is not cartel activity.

It's people being absolute asses to the environment.

[hobbit709]

9. Big money always invites organized crime.

And when has organized crime given a shit about the legality or illegality of ingredients or methods.

I know people involved in the legit MM business and they don't use pesticides of any kind.

[randome]

13. 20-somethings are doing this. Not organized crime.

Assholes are doing this. Not organized crime.

[hobbit709]

14. Not from what I hear.

Those 20 somethings are being paid by someone to do this.

[H2O Man]

17. Oh, sure.

No doubt, it's them danged college students, flying in loads of cocaine and heroin, too.

[randome]

19. I was talking about the article.

The article says '20-somethings'. The ecological damage being done with pot farms in California appears to be some young people looking to make a fortune. The only problem with that is that they're causing severe damage to the environment.

[H2O Man]

21. I'm agreeing with you.

So much so, that I'm expanding upon this valid and factual truth. It's 20-year olds who are fully responsible for every bad thing in the world. Darn them.

One needs to be able to "read between the lines," so to speak, and base all assumptions entirely upon one article. It's dangerous to gather information from more than a single source, especially if that source is clearly wrong.

[randome]

23. If you're implying that's what I'm implying, you're very far from the truth.

I am all for turning over control of this world to the next generation. They are just as fucked up -and just as noble- as any other.

But 20-somethings are normally not part of organized crime. However, as someone pointed out below, some of these farms are also cartel-operated. So it seems like it's a mix of profit-seeking Americans and cartel operators.

[H2O Man]

24. I accept

full credit for every word I wrote. In fact, I demand it! So if anyone reads your posts and mine, and suffers from any confusion about that fact, I'd say that it could be blamed upon those dirty, rotten, pot-growing kids. And they need to keep the fuck off of my lawn.

[obliviously]

39. This is actually a good thing

This will keep them from occupying a park some where and bringing rats into the center of some city, these are the knuckle draggers you see with dollar bills taped to their mouths protesting the same industries that feed them, clothe them and keep them in iPhones.
I'm glad they have found some out of the way place to wreak havoc, soon enough they will be burned out and in some treatment center.
Nature will recover, it did from the hippies.

[Tsiyu]

51. It's funny

Some Native Americans thought that plowing and cultivating land was like "cutting into Mother Earth."

They loathed the way the White Race clearcut forests and destroyed streams for gold and massacred thousands of buffalo that were just left to rot on the prairies.

Now we still have a dust bowl problem in the Midwest, polluted streams and rivers all over the nation from corporate farming and manufacturing processes, WalMarts being built on graveyards and historic areas.

But all of a sudden, Americans care about what capitalism does to the environment? Selective, aren't we?

I have to

[obliviously]

58. I'm glad you are seeing that

The older you get the clearer it will become, it's okay for me but not for you, mirrors are revealing.

[Tsiyu]

60. I never said any of it was okay

and you live up to your moniker.

You have no idea who I am, how old I am; you just shoot off at the keyboard like a small child.

I don't like what this article suggests, but to turn your own personal capitalism fetish into some sort of environmental savior status is disingenuous and very hypocritical.

[obliviously]

61. No, basicaly you have said it's okay

As long as it is your capitalism and not someone else.
Peal away the outer layer and you are no different than anyone else, except perhaps your defensiveness for your pet project, rock on, enjoy the fruits of your labor like everyone else, besides it is much more fun than running around unbathed in a park with a dollar bill taped over your mouth.

[Tsiyu]

64. I'm sorry, do you know something I don't?

Do I have a pot grow out in California?

As far as I know, I'm not growing any cannabis.

If I want to obtain cannabis, it IS the number one cash crop in my state. I don't need California weed.

If my state cared about my medical condition, they would let me grow my own. Then it would be indoors, not harming anyone. But they don't. So I don't have any plants anywhere. Unless you know something I don't.


Again, you are some keyboard commando who is itching to attack someone on this board.

But you just sound really stupid, honestly. With all due respect.

Spout off some more dumb crap. You're on a roll....I bow out, but I'll watch you out yourself.

[Comrade Grumpy]

65. What a hateful post. Do you loathe all young people or just politically active ones?

[H2O Man]

70. My favorite cities

are those without any rats. I, too, blame those naked hippies and their almost-naked-except-that-dollar-bill-taped-on-their-mouthes. Until they learn that grocery stores provide the exact food-stuffs we should consume in massive quantities, they will continue to attempt to grow plants. Losers. How fucking un-natural.

If their parents had been responsible citizens of honor, who honored those corporations that actually provide manna (with preservatives the hippites never produced) from GE, those fucking kids would not have the dollars they profane -- but nothing is sacred to them.

This is what happens to a society that takes school out of prayer. These fucking kids were serious about contributing to the most basic goodnesses of humanity, they'd be applying for jobs as armed guards in schools.

[Le Taz Hot]

72. No, the cartels are doing this.

It's been going on for decades. I live in/around the Sierra Nevada mountain range and know many of the County Sheriffs and they all tell me the same things. These guys aren't local residents, they're growing for the cartels.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

18. There's not a big demand for poisonous pesticidies that would create a black market.

Fail argument.

[Le Taz Hot]

73. THANK YOU!

Nobody but the dumbest of dumb shits is going to buy/ingest this stuff. This is typical Mexican pot growing techniques. It's one of the many reasons nobody buys/smokes their ditch weed anymore. Full of seeds, no hybrids, tastes like shit and full of pesticides. Who the hell wants that?

[Warren Stupidity]

27. If it was a legal crop it would merely be as bad as the rest of agriculture.

[randome]

32. You're probably right.

[Zorra]

50. At one time, they were, to a great extent. But naturally, ruthless capitalists began to invade

rural areas en masse and destroy the environment for profit.

Such is the nature of capitalism.

All manner of greed and destruction is acceptable in the quest for increased profits.

[Berlum]

2. ...and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden...

[In_The_Wind]

55. Marijuana should have been legalized years ago.

We wouldn't have the problems we see today.

[Egalitarian Thug]

3. Incrementalism. Bad whichever way you look at it.

[eShirl]

4. shitheads cashing in on the profitability of a federally illegal crop

excuse me, "capitalists"
didn't mean to insult actual shitheads

[Kolesar]

10. Since it is illegal, it turned into a racket

Here comes the gangsters and the violence.

[randome]

12. Read the article. 20-somethings are doing this.

It's doubtful they're part of organized crime.

[Kolesar]

15. PP2 on Page 2 says its the biggies and the smalls

"Other producers, like the Mexican drug trafficking groups who set up giant grows on public lands right next to mountain streams, spread toxins far and wide and steal enough water to run oscillating sprinkler systems."

This article is quite distressing. They are poisoning the rare fishers.

[randome]

20. Ah. I did not read that far. Thanks for the clarification.

[Bluenorthwest]

31. You are under the impression that 20 is too young to be in a gang or other crime group?

Are you not aware of even younger people doing even worse crimes as part of those groups? Where do you live? Seriously. You think the elders in a crime organization are going to do the hard labor and take the risk of actually doing the work? I think they would sent junior members to do that stuff. That's the 'organized' part.
Got any reasons why you think it is 'doubtful' they are part of an organized group simply because they are under 30 years old? That's what you are saying.

[randome]

33. No, you're right. It's not too young.

But the article implies that some are just private 'entrepreneurs' trying to cash in. Others do seem to be cartel-related.

[Romulox]

36. ANOTHER bizarre "musing" from Randome. Now 20-somethings aren't in gangs...

[Jim Warren]

67. Not necessarily

because "the article" says it does not make it so. Almost all 20-somethings I know are acutely aware of environmental degradation.

[cherokeeprogressive]

69. 20-somethings are mentioned in the 16th paragraph of the article, and not again.

However, if you read farther...

Other producers, like the Mexican drug trafficking groups who set up giant grows on public lands right next to mountain streams, spread toxins far and wide and steal enough water to run oscillating sprinkler systems.

At a dump pile next to the creek, he found propane tanks, more rat poison, cans of El Pato tomato sauce, and empty bags of Grow More fertilizer, instant noodles and tortillas.

[secondvariety]

5. My home county.

Sad to see. Time to drop the hammer on these assholes.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

16. If they were endangering Cheetos instead of wildlife, I'll bet they'd think twice.

Selfish. Thoughtless. Irresponsible.

[RandiFan1290]

22. Just proof that further legalization is needed.

People in other States are still paying $100 for 7 grams of this stuff.

[lbrtbell]

25. All this, because of stupid stoners

I'm all for MJ being used for medicinal purposes for pain, psychiatric disorders, etc.

But "recreational" use? Those people need to get off their butts and do something constructive with their lives. Only boring people need to get drunk or high.

[obamanut2012]

28. Do you think alcohol should only be used for medicinal purposes?

[hobbit709]

29. Huh? did you forget the sarcasm thingie?

[Kolesar]

34. Or snowboarders...eom

[intheflow]

41. I think you need to get drunk or high.

Might loosen your anus enough to dislodge that stick up your ass.

[fredamae]

53. Hmmm, Can you

show any studies that demonstrate those using Cannabis for personal use aren't using it for medical purpose?

Anyone who imbibes once & returns to use it again does so because Cannabis makes them Feel Better which Is the purpose of all Medicines.

They use Cannabis in lieu of Prozac and etc. Or they use Cannabis in lieu of Booze which we All understand is Way more dangerous than Cannabis...and Unlike Cannabis, is Highly Addictive. While the govt can call it a drug, (or anything else it wants) it Cannot change science. Science tells us Cannabis in fact is not a drug-it is a plant-a Phytomedicine.

Ironically, Cannabis Fails the Fed Sched I CSA criteria test-and Is illegal--while Alcohol Does fit the Fed I CSA criteria and we Advertise it's use to Increase consumption so profit margins can expand.

[Comrade Grumpy]

66. Do you really think people can't smoke pot and still lead constructive lives? What an ass.

[leveymg]

26. Insecticides aside, this reminds me of the littering incident told about in "Alice's Restaurant"

[djean111]

30. Hopefully, the government will crack down on this just as hard as they crack down on

big farming releasing pesticides and herbicides into our water and land and bodies.

[Romulox]

35. Hey I know--lets' make all of this ILLEGAL. Problem solved!

Oh, wait. It's ALREADY illegal.

[tridim]

37. Proof that the War On Drugs doesn't just hurt people.

[fredamae]

38. Don't even list Water

as Fracking, Oil, Streams, Rivers are completely, carelessly loaded with oil, chemicals and so on...have virtually destroyed our water.

Now, as many here already recognize--It's the Laws, Rules and Policies that drove it underground.
Change the laws. People who use Cannabis are not going away-therefore let folks grow their own. Those who grow in forests everywhere (many states are under siege by illegal growers) will be disincentivized

[obliviously]

40. Dude there's gold in them hills.

Go get you a stake , it's 1848 all over again. Another California gold rush, different generation but the same ambition.

[greytdemocrat]

43. Ha!

Willie Nelson smilies.

[renie408]

42. Are these legal or illegal grows?

[BlueToTheBone]

52. national forests are all illegal grows.

Legals have small farm like affairs, but there are lots of cowboys who are lazy about what they do.

[renie408]

59. Duh... I didn't even pay attention to the 'national forest' thing.

Thanks.

[randome]

44. Ah, the hell with it. Get high on literature, dudes!

There's too much serious shit going on in this thread!

[flvegan]

46. For the love of money...

[raouldukelives]

48. MJ is the largest polluting illegal crop in California.

Among the legal ones, it barely registers. I must have missed the articles about the wineries leveling mountains, clear cutting old growth Redwood forests and illegally diverting hundreds of millions of gallons of water from local creeks & rivers. Of course they do get caught sometimes and have to pay a fine. Luckily for them, it is less than what it would have cost them to pay for the water legally.
Maybe that is a good reason not to have sprawling, legal marijuana farms. The further strain on the fragile ecosystem.
Or better yet, no wineries and huge hemp fields. Hey, at least we get more back from it than vinegar and accolades from the worlds 1%. It actually is pretty useful stuff and could be a good answer to local jobs as well as ecosystem sustainability.
Or, more booze and casinos. I'm pretty sure what it'll be.

[Liberal_in_LA]

74. Some good points...

[Marrah_G]

49. They need to heavily regulate

I have a friend who's nephew is a grower. He lives off the grid in a small cabin and uses no pesticides. He's traveled the world over the years learning alternative farming techniques.

So there are good growers out there. You just need to regulate out the bad ones.

[The Midway Rebel]

54. Oh look!

Another reason to decriminalize weed!

[lame54]

57. if it were legal...

they wouldn't have to hide their way of operating

another disaster of the drug war

[jsr]

62. Legalize it and regulate its production.

[Bennyboy]

63. Another argument FOR LEGALIZATION......

Lets get something staright right now. In CA it takes 7 MILLION plants (at the bare minimum) to supply one years worth of demand.

As long as it is illegal you will have this going on. We were going in the direction of legalization here, with large grows proposed for cities blessing. Oakland and Isleton approved large warehouse grows. Farmers in the Sacramento delta were turning to growing for the dispensaries. Large farms were beginning to pop up.

Then October 2011 hit and DOJ started shutting it all down. And insuring that stuff like this will continue. These are people, that due to the illegality, have to hide and the only place to do that is in the thick forest. Most, but not all, of these types of grows are run by hired hands who are illegals. And they have no concern for the environment or any of that, all they care about is doing their job. They grow crap too. These guys are part of the worldwide crime cartel and by keeping it illegal only keeps them in business.

Ask yourself this, would you rther see this, or large farms, using drip systems, saving water, growing organically?

Most of the growers I know are not at all like that. They grow organic (Again a certification and testing industry was starting in CA until Oct) and own the property they grow on. They also know that 20 plants will net them enough to get through the year.

[Le Taz Hot]

71. Wish I would have seen this earlier.

These are not your average California growers. They have more respect for the environment than that. THESE ARE THE CARTELS growing on federal land because it's harder to bust someone who doesn't actually live near pot plants. RESIDENTS don't need to go to the forest to grow pot, we grow it in our back yards and, so long as people aren't being stupid about it (500 pots in your back yard), nobody really gives a shit if you have it or not. This is such bullshit yellow "journalism" I can't believe a CA newspaper would post such dreck. Oh, wait, isn't Murdoch about ready to purchase the LA Times?