Pubdate: Wed, 01 Oct 2014
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2014 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Jeff Barnard, Associated Press
Page: A7

BIOLOGISTS IDENTIFY POT GARDENS AS SALMON THREAT

GRANTS PASS, ORE. (AP) - Water use and other actions by the marijuana 
industry in the Emerald Triangle of Northern California and Southern 
Oregon are threatening salmon already in danger of extinction, 
federal biologists said Tuesday.

Concerns about the impact of pot farming were raised by the NOAA 
Fisheries Service in its final recovery plan for coho salmon in the 
region. The full plan was to be posted on the agency's website.

A copy obtained in advance calls for determining then decreasing the 
amount of water that pot growers illegally withdraw from creeks where 
young fish struggle to survive.

Pot is legally grown in the region for medical purposes and illegally 
for the black market.

Other threats from the unregulated industry include clear-cutting 
forests to create pot plantations, building roads that send sediment 
into salmon streams, and spreading fertilizer and pesticides that 
poison the water.

Coho salmon have been listed as a threatened species since 1997 in 
the region. Like salmon throughout the West, they have suffered from 
loss of habitat from logging, agriculture, urban development, 
overfishing and dams.

The recovery plan also calls for steps to address many of those issues.

The spotlight on marijuana stemmed from a California Department of 
Fish and Wildlife study that estimated pot growers suck millions of 
gallons of water from salmon streams.

"Logging is regulated. Vineyards are regulated. It is time this 
industry was willing to be regulated," said Scott Bauer, an 
environmental scientist on the watershed enforcement team of the 
California Department of Fish and Wildlife and lead author of the study.

Armed with new authority from the Legislature, the department is 
imposing fines for illegal water withdrawals for use on pot 
plantations, Mr. Bauer said.

The recovery plan points specifically to marijuana as a threat in 
river basins of Northern California, but the same issues exist in 
southwestern Oregon rivers, said Clarence Hostler, south coast branch 
chief for NOAA Fisheries in Arcata, California.

The plan marks the second time that Endangered Species Act actions 
have pointed to marijuana as a threat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service has been looking at rat poison left around illegal pot 
plantations in California as a factor in whether to list the Pacific 
fisher as a threatened species.

The Emerald Growers Association represents a few hundred marijuana 
farmers in the region known as the Emerald Triangle due to the 
prevalence of pot plantations. Executive director Hezekiah Allen said 
bringing the industry under regulation would allow legitimate growers 
to compete more evenly with illegal growers, who have a financial 
incentive to cut corners.

"We need regulation that's going to make sense to the farmers on the 
ground," he said. "That is also going to achieve the public safety 
and environmental goals that we all share."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom