Pubdate: Fri, 18 Nov 2005
Source: Eagle-Tribune, The (MA)
Copyright: 2005 The Eagle-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.eagletribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/129
Author: Bill Straub, Scripps Howard News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

GROWING POT AN INCREASING PROBLEM IN PARKS, CONGRESS TOLD

WASHINGTON - There was a time when foraging bears presented the greatest
danger to the hikers and fishermen absorbing the natural beauty of Sequoia
National Park in central California.

But those days are long gone, in the view of Laura Whitehouse, central
valley program manager with the National Parks Conservation Association. The
bears have  been superseded in the past few years by camo-wearing guards
flashing AK-47s and  trip wires attached to shotgun triggers, all to protect
the burgeoning marijuana  crops popping up on public lands.

Mexican drug cartels, finding it increasingly difficult to smuggle their
product across the southern border, are using remote areas in several
national parks, primarily in California, to grow marijuana, she and others
told Congress.  And proceeds from that lucrative trade are invested in
methamphetamine labs and  cocaine-processing plants, resulting in an illicit
multibillion-dollar business.

The dangers are manifold, Whitehouse told the House Subcommittee on National
Parks, which began looking into the problem on Thursday: The drugs present a
danger to the customers. And the measures taken by the cartels to protect
their  investment are depriving innocent individuals who simply want to
enjoy the great  outdoors.

"Park Service rangers have heard of hikers and fishermen being chased
at gunpoint after inadvertently stumbling into a marijuana garden or
meeting one of these guards on the trail," Whitehouse said. "The
cartels also use booby traps  to secure their marijuana gardens"
shotguns with trip lines carefully hidden  and positioned to shoot an
unknowing victim in the face." The appropriation of national parkland
for the purpose of cultivating marijuana, according to Karen
Taylor-Goodrich, associate director for visitor  and resource
protection for the National Park Service, is "a truly significant  and
extensive problem" that the agency is attempting to address despite a
dearth of resources.

"While we are attempting to aggressively quantify the overall problem,
how much marijuana is being cultivated and the extent to which these
organizations operate on parks lands is not fully known,"
Taylor-Goodrich said. "Our intelligence indicates that most of these
cultivation operations were conducted  by a small number of Mexican
national organizations."

Of the 388 national-park units, Taylor-Goodrich estimated that 12 to
15 have what can be termed a cultivation problem. Most are in
California. Yosemite National Park, Whiskeytown National Recreation
Area, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Golden Gate
National Recreation Area and Point Reyes National Seashore "all have
drug-trafficking organizations working within and around their
boundaries."

The National Parks Conservation Association reports that rangers also
confront illegal drug cultivation and/or trafficking at Organ Pipe
Cactus and Coronado national monuments in Arizona and the Amistad
National Recreation Area and Padre Island National Seashore in Texas.

Tulare County (Calif.) Supervisor Allen Ishida, whose county is the
gateway into Sequoia National Park, said the region "has experienced a
rapid growth in drug-trafficking organizations using our local area to
cultivate, process and  transport illegal drugs" since the 1990s. In
2004, the Tulare County Sheriff's  Department located and eradicated
161,624 live marijuana plants, 87 percent of  which were found on
federal lands.

Any effort to eradicate the illicit crop, Ishida said, will require
greater cooperation among local, state and federal authorities as well
as additional resources. Tulare County will spend $300,000 this year about
half from the federal government to "try to address a problem that goes
into the billions of  dollars."

"The parks are in desperate need of increased backcountry patrols and
helicopter time to patrol and conduct surveillance of these
hard-to-find growing areas," Whitehouse said. "Without further
investigation of marijuana activities within the parks, park resources as
well as visitors and park rangers are in  danger."

The National Park Service is "doing the best they can with the limited
resources they have." Her group, the National Parks Conservation
Association, is asking Congress to appropriate an additional $600
million annually to address the system's chronic funding shortfalls.
Whitehouse warned that any across-the-board cuts imposed by lawmakers
would hinder efforts to combat drug trafficking in the parks.

"Until Congress and the administration address the parks' critical
funding needs, the safety of rangers and visitors, and the
preservation of our heritage,  will remain at risk," Whitehouse said.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin