Posted on 12/23/2012 11:26:16 AM PST by DogByte6RER
Pot farms wreaking havoc on Northern California environment
• Burgeoning marijuana growing operations are sucking millions of gallons of water from coho salmon lifelines and taking other environmental tolls, scientists say.
EUREKA, Calif. — State scientists, grappling with an explosion of marijuana growing on the North Coast, recently studied aerial imagery of a small tributary of the Eel River, spawning grounds for endangered coho salmon and other threatened fish.
In the remote, 37-square-mile patch of forest, they counted 281 outdoor pot farms and 286 greenhouses, containing an estimated 20,000 plants — mostly fed by water diverted from creeks or a fork of the Eel. The scientists determined the farms were siphoning roughly 18 million gallons from the watershed every year, largely at the time when the salmon most need it.
"That is just one small watershed," said Scott Bauer, the state scientist in charge of the coho recovery on the North Coast for the Department of Fish and Game. "You extrapolate that for all the other tributaries, just of the Eel, and you get a lot of marijuana sucking up a lot of water.… This threatens species we are spending millions of dollars to recover."
The marijuana boom that came with the sudden rise of medical cannabis in California has wreaked havoc on the fragile habitats of the North Coast and other parts of California. With little or no oversight, farmers have illegally mowed down timber, graded mountaintops flat for sprawling greenhouses, dispersed poisons and pesticides, drained streams and polluted watersheds.
Because marijuana is unregulated in California and illegal under federal law, most growers still operate in the shadows, and scientists have little hard data on their collective effect. But they are getting ever more ugly snapshots.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Hoopa, California - Wildlife technician Aaron Pole surveys the forest where marijuana growers left piles of trash when vacating the area. The operation was raided by the Sheriff's Department in August, and deputies cut down 26,600 plants in eight interconnected clearings along Mill Creek.
There goofy windmills are killing the birds and their marijuana plantations are killing the fish. How ‘bout those enviroliberals?! They must REALLY care about “da planet”.
What if the government took over all operations?
Isn’t that the next step?
So,why can’t Obama sic his EPA on them? Opps, forgot about the Choom gang!
Potheads vs. Tree Huggers ... this should be a good show!
Just by planting upon the watershed, or is irrigation being snatched from the creeks or what?
I suppose it was only a matter of time until the envirogreenies and the potheads clashed. They deserve one another.
If they were illegal gold miners rather that marijuana growers, the EPA would mobilize a joint task force complete with automatic weapons to shut them down. The Obama EPA is a bizarre anti capitalist organization that is stifling entrepreneurship and the creation of real wealth with its endless rules and regulations.
Hmm...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel_River_(California)#River_modifications
“There are two hydroelectric dams on the Eel, 130 feet (40 m) Scott Dam, which forms Lake Pillsbury, and 50 feet (15 m) Cape Horn Dam, which forms Van Arsdale Reservoir just north of Potter Valley. At Cape Horn Dam, the majority of the water is diverted through a tunnel and hydroelectric plant, and then to the headwaters of the Russian River in Potter Valley and is known as the Potter Valley Project.”
But, but, but....growing pot is so green and so natural for the enviroment. Not like the poisonous toxins the evil corporatists spew onto mother nature. (’
Can the rats and Hanta viruses be far behind? Look at that mess.
yes. of course, no farmer (of beets, carrots, corn, or marijuana) has to leave the countryside looking like a pig-sty.
And most farmers don’t.
the problem here is not the farming but rather the selfish pigs who are doing it
To paraphrase the fabulous furry freak brothers:
“Dope will get you though times of no salmon better than salmon will you through times of no dope”
The contradictions of modern liberalism are truly amazing. Liberals oppose smoking tobacco for the harm that the smoke causes but support smoking marijuana, whose probably just as harmful, if not more so.
California reaps the benefits of the hippie Socialist Utopia they have created. May their crops always be plentiful.
No, I’d say the next step would be to take it out of the legal “grey area” they have put it in that encourages this recklessness. If it’s not quite legal to grow it, then the growers are of course going to be fly by night operators worried more about getting arrested for drugs than getting a citation for flaunting some environmental regulations. If it’s legal to grow it, the growers will have the same incentives the follow the regulations as any other legal farmers.
It already grows wild quite freely in most environments, but the wild plants are worthless for commercial purposes. They must be separated by sex at a certain stage of cultivation, otherwise they will end up with a negligable value as a drug.
Many of these growers are heavily armed criminals connected to L.A. street gangs and the Mexican cartels - they are not in the least interested in medical marijuana or the environment.
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