Photo By Staff Sgt. Lani Pascual | Maj. Gen. Matthew Beevers, Deputy Adjutant General of the California Military...... read more read more
On May 29, 2018, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced heightened concerns regarding the continued damage to public lands from illegal marijuana grows during a press conference in Sacramento, California.
He was joined by federal, state, and local leaders to highlight a multi-agency effort to target the disruption of illicit cannabis grown in our national forests.
“Growing marijuana on federal public lands is, and has always been, illegal, and the destruction it wreaks on the environment must be stopped,” said U.S. Attorney Scott. “My office is committed to raising awareness about this issue and joining with our partners to put an end to this profound problem.”
California is the number one contributor of illegal marijuana in the nation. Because of this, our state receives a majority of the funding Congress recently appropriated to the U.S. Forest Service to specifically tackle this issue. Operation Forest Watch was initiated with the goal of preserving the environment and protecting our communities.
Partner agencies include the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and Law Enforcement Investigations, the Integral Ecology Research Center, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program, several county sheriff’s departments and the California National Guard Counterdrug Task Force.
CDTF supports partner agencies in the eradication and disruption of the supply and demand of illegal drugs. This includes using personnel and equipment for the reclamation of public lands, such as the removal of infrastructure used to divert public water to illegal cannabis crops.
In 2016, more than one million illicit marijuana plants removed in our state would have illegally used approximately 1.3 billion gallons of public water. This year, CDTF personnel removed 41,159 marijuana plants from 4,431 acres of public lands and pulled 136,357 feet of irrigation line from 39 separate illegal grows.
Perhaps more alarming than water diversion, even in this time of drought, is the new research showing the long-term effects of toxins used on these grows. Chemicals used as rodenticides and pesticides at these sites leech down into the land, water, wildlife, food chain, and even the end product.
Dr. Mourad Gabriel, Integral Ecology Research Center Director, regularly tests swabs from sprayers for toxic pesticides used on illegal marijuana grow sites. His agency’s research shows the need for attention to this issue.
Carbofuran, banned in California, is so deadly that only 1/8 teaspoon of the pesticide can kill a 300-pound black bear. On May 22, a black bear was spotted at an illicit marijuana grow site in the Sierra National Forest near Madera, California. Bite marks on a bottle of carbofuran, found at the same site, means the bear potentially died from exposure to the toxin. Studies show this chemical is present at more than 80 percent of illegal marijuana grows, up 5 percent from last year.
CDTF team members removed 1,557 pounds of pesticides from public lands as part of Operation Forest Watch in August 2018.
Along with dangerous poisons, trash and infrastructure from abandoned camps must be collected and removed, usually hauled out by helicopter in order to allow the land to return to its natural state. The magnitude of this compound problem calls for continued, joint-efforts to protect our lands and communities.
“We can’t even think about being successful unless we include all these agencies,” said Gabriel. “It would be too much for one agency to tackle alone.”
Maj. Gen. Matthew Beevers, Deputy Adjutant General of the California Military Department, spoke to the media during a second press conference about the results of Operation Forest Watch at McClellan Park in Sacramento, California, on August 28.
"In my 34 years of public service, I have never seen a more elegant or more sophisticated, whole of government approach to solving a very, very challenging and critical issue,” said Beevers. “The people need to see what these chemicals do to our national forests, what they do to our streams. We simply can’t do that alone, so we appreciate your support getting out there and taking those risks and getting that story. It’s a story that really, really needs to be told.”
| Date Taken: | 09.04.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 09.04.2018 14:16 |
| Story ID: | 291334 |
| Location: | SACRAMENTO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 228 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, CALIFORNIA RECEIVES FEDERAL FUNDS TO COMBAT ILLEGAL MARIJUANA ON PUBLIC LANDS, by SSG Lani Pascual, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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