Pubdate: Fri, 26 Oct 2012
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Author: Matt Weiser, The Sacramento Bee
Page: A7

MEDICAL POT GROWERS HURTING FORESTS

California Finds Rush to Profit From Patient Demand Has Damaged the
Environment

By Matt Weiser The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento - California's annual medical marijuana harvest is about
done, but this year brings a revelation sweeping the nascent industry:
The feel-good herb may not, in fact, be so good for the
environment.

 From golden Sierra foothills to forested coastal mountains, an
explosion of pseudo-legal medical marijuana farms has dramatically
changed the state's landscape over the last two years. A rush to
profit from patient demand for pot has resulted in irresponsible
forest clearing, illegal stream diversions, and careless pesticide and
fertilizer use that has polluted waterways and killed wildlife, state
and local government officials said.

The problem has become so big and so unregulated that the California
Department of Fish and Game has resorted to aerial surveys to assess
its scale. It has a new high-resolution, computer-controlled camera
mounted in the belly of an aircraft to help pinpoint problem marijuana
areas.

In a recent flight over Nevada County in Northern California's Gold
Country, game warden Jerry Karnow was "astounded" at the increase in
obvious marijuana fields visible from the air. They pop out as tightly
clustered patches of vivid green plants in an otherwise sun-baked
landscape, usually surrounded by tall fences.

In the course of a 90-minute flight, the visible growths numbered in
the hundreds, often carved out of mixed oak and pine forests on steep,
erosion-prone hillsides.

"I flew this last year and I'm seeing a whole bunch more than I did
then," said Karnow, a warden in the region for 15 years. "This year,
it was unbelievable."

Medical marijuana growths fall into a different category from illegal
"trespass grows," which tend to be hidden on public land and
maintained by criminal organizations. Pot grown for medicinal use is
found on private land and legally permitted under state law.

But the environmental problems they create are similar, in large part
because the state's ability to regulate marijuana cultivation remains
hazy. Although state law makes it legal to grow and use medical
marijuana, it provides little guidance on how to regulate it.

In addition, medicinal marijuana farms remain illegal under federal
law, putting state and local agencies on uncertain ground when they
attempt to set limits.

"The impacts of water withdrawal, herbicide and pesticide use,
unpermitted grading - all of these things in any other legal industry
would be regulated. And we know how to regulate them," said Mark
Lovelace, a Humboldt County supervisor who is grappling with the dilemma.

"In this case, you can't bring them into compliance because the
activity they are doing is fundamentally illegal according to the
federal government."

California voters legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes in 1996
when they approved Proposition 215. The law allowed patients with a
doctor's recommendation to possess and grow marijuana in limited
quantities, but did not set clear limits.

The Legislature tried to fix that loophole with Senate Bill 420, which
took effect in 2004. It allowed Proposition 215 patients to cultivate
no more than six mature or 12 immature plants. But the law was
challenged in the state Supreme Court, which ruled in 2010 the limit
on plant numbers was invalid.

Many growers took this as endorsement to cultivate all the marijuana
they wanted. This may have triggered the explosion of medicinal grow
sites across the state that is prompting environmental concern.

"The belief is to get what you can while the growing's good, because
it won't last forever," said Lovelace, who supports legal use of
medicinal marijuana. "There are a lot of folks out there who just
don't care about the environmental harm they are doing."
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MAP posted-by: Matt