Pubdate: Tue, 07 Aug 2007
Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
Copyright: 2007 Record Searchlight
Contact:  http://www.redding.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/360
Author: David Benda
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Operation+Alesia (Operation Alesia)

Alesia Inspected:

FOREST SERVICE CHIEF SAYS AREA POT FARMERS DAUNTING

U.S. Forest Service chief Gail Kimbell, the second top federal 
official to visit Shasta County this summer, got an aerial view 
Monday afternoon of the region's timber country and marijuana removal efforts.

It was Kimbell's first trip to Northern California since taking over 
the Forest Service this year. Kimbell, the first woman to hold the 
job, succeeded Dale Bosworth.

On Monday, Kimbell lamented about the sheer determination of pot 
growers and the danger they present for firefighters, Forest Service 
employees, and the public.

"It's not all about marijuana. It's about the resource damage and 
public safety," Kimbell said during an afternoon press conference at 
the Redding Forest Service office.

The ingenuity of people who can cultivate anything on a steep slope 
is daunting, she added.

Kimbell's trip comes a month after John P. Walters, President Bush's 
drug czar, came to Redding for an update on the "Operation Alesia" 
marijuana-removal effort.

The campaign destroyed 52 gardens that had been identified and an 
additional eight discovered after the assault began. All told, 
283,397 plants were pulled from gardens in the Shasta County woods. 
Nearly 65 percent of the pot gardens found were on Forest Service land.

Some 400 law enforcement officers were used in the effort, which 
wrapped up in late July.

Still basking in the success of "Operation Alesia," forest service 
special agent Ron Pugh said Monday that three more law enforcement 
officers will join the marijuana fight in Shasta County next year. 
They're among 50 additional cops the state will bring in 2008 to help 
remove marijuana gardens, said Pugh, who heads up the Forest 
Service's Pacific Southwest Region.

California is getting $5.5 million in federal funds to help pay for 
the beefed-up effort, Pugh said.

Monday's aerial tour was arranged by north state Congressman Wally 
Herger, R-Chico. But flight delays in Atlanta and Los Angeles caused 
him to miss the event, said Fran Peace, Herger's district director.

The Forest Service chief's visit came three days after her agency 
released a study on the Angora Fire, which burned more than 250 
structures near Lake Tahoe in June. The agency said areas near 
subdivisions where defensible space and fuel-reduction plans were 
implemented provided havens, which prevented more homes from burning.

Many homes burned in the Angora Fire were sparked by fuels generated 
from other burning homes -- and not from trees and other wildland 
fuel, the report said.

Kimbell, who was on the road last week and has not seen the Angora 
Fire report, said history shows that managed tree stands suffer much 
lower mortality rates than do forests that are left alone.

"It allows firefighters to be more effective," Kimbell said of managed forests. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake