Posted on 08/06/2006 8:45:29 AM PDT by CAWats
SUMMIT — Sheriff's patrol Sgt. Mark Yanez surveys the mess the pot farmers left behind: trash, empty propane tanks and gardening supplies. A blue jug of Power Force Multi Insect Killer and a paper sack with crumbly remains of ammonia sulfate are most damaging to the forest, he says.
But Sgt. Steve Carney, leader of the three-man team, knows his crew's efforts will only slow the expanding problem on state and federal lands: marijuana-growing operations that deputies say are controlled by Mexican drug cartels.
The pot farms present a multitude of problems. Armed men camp nearby to defend the gardens, many of which are within a few minutes' walk of popular hiking trails. Most natural vegetation has been scraped off the steep hillsides to make room for thousands of marijuana plants, creating erosion and disrupting or destroying native species. The pot crops are fed amped-up fertilizers and sprayed with pesticides, deer repellent and rat poison that leech into the soil and water supply.
(Excerpt) Read more at santacruzsentinel.com ...
Now the leftists have to make a decision... pot or ecology...
Heh heh.
Oh Wow, dude, that is like such a hard, like, you know, choice to have to make. I'll have to smoke a coupla doobbies to get my head clear on this one, man.
What the heck is wrong with deer repellant? I wish we had more around here. Either that or issue a lot more deer tags this year. Those "Rocky Mountain Rats" are a real pest.
Nay..... be assured that he is directly responsible. Somehow.
If their thinking doesn't get too uptight or "reactionary™," they could only smoke closed-system hydroponic, thus protecting Mother Earth™ even during a "wake and bake".
"deer repellant" = .308cal, w/ no environmental problems at all.
"Why aren't they as upset at all the trash left behind at the Mexican border by those breaking into our country?"
Or at their own protets, marches and gatherings.
That's pure unadulterated bull.... Add too much fertilizer that causes run-off issues and you'll BURN the plant to a crispy critter. Same with pesticides.
I thought once, adding a little fertilizer is good on my tomato plants, so more would be better, (tomato are notorious heavy feeders, like pot, or so I've been told). Instead I ended up with standing dead plants that turned yellow and then brown within days.
I'd be more worried about lead poisoning from clandestine grow-ops. Mexican gangsters are well armed.
If these people are caught, they should be charged with federal crimes since they're damaging national park lands (in some cases).
As long as loggers don't cut down a sacred tree, it will be OK with the enviros.
The biggest mess I ever saw was Central Park the evening of an "Earth Day".
Next thing you'll be tellin' me they do it on a school night too.
Sounds like clandestine pot farming is not such a good thing. Time to regulate it so pot growers have to follow the same rules everyone else does.
"...I thought the drug war was pointless and a VICTIMLESS crime!!!"
The drug war is not a victimless crime.
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