I imagine the medical marijuana growers are being driven into the woods by the Obama Admin crackdown on growers. Who is going to rent to a grower in that circumstance - which means the enviornmental problems are an unintended consequence of the crackdown.
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Attorney-general-defends-medical-pot-crackdown-3619425.php
Nadler pointed out that as a presidential candidate in 2008, Barack Obama had promised that he wouldn’t use “Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue.”
But since 2009, federal agents and prosecutors have conducted about 200 raids on medical marijuana dispensaries and growers and brought more than 60 indictments, Nadler said.
Much of the federal crackdown has taken place in California, one of 17 states (plus the District of Columbia) that have medical marijuana laws on the books. Medical marijuana advocates in California have accused the Obama administration of duplicity in its evolving policy positions.
But Holder insisted the Justice Department has limited its enforcement actions “to those individuals (and) organizations that are acting out of conformity ... with state laws.”
I owned property in N Calif from 1988 thru 2004. Good horse trails which dated back to the pioneers & the Gold Rush days were no longer usable because of the pot growers shooting at you.
The Tahoe National Forest is no longer a place where you can camp-hike- or ride. There are large grows there being run by cartels from Mexico and they have found it is easier to bring the workers & the seeds to the USA & do all their planting here.
They are so dangerous that many county sheriff’s in N Calif won’t go near them.
Horse riders are being told they cannot use certain trails because of ‘enviro damage’ from hoofprints, but these cartels are far more destructive.
The failure to control / eradicate these pot grows was another reason why I moved out of N Calif.