NY Times Examines Impact of Pot Farms on North Coast Forests

New York Times is reporting that marijuana cultivation in northern California’s forests may be having a negative impact on the very forests that mask them from the prying eyes of law-enforcement and rival growers.

In a story published today, bylined Arcata, the paper says that even growers are beginning to acknowledge the problem: “ like industrial logging before it, the booming business of marijuana is a threat to forests whose looming dark redwoods preside over vibrant ecosystems.”

Hilltops have been leveled to make room for the crop. Bulldozers start landslides on erosion-prone mountainsides. Road and dam construction clogs some streams with dislodged soil. Others are bled dry by diversions. Little water is left for salmon whose populations have been decimated by logging.

The impact is not only on plantlife, or even river  inhabitants like salmon, but the animals of the forest. Rat poison ingredients have been found to kill several of rare forest weasels the fisher, and been found in endangered spotted owls.

The article includes a link to a video by Mother Earth News that uses Google Earth to graphically demonstrate the impact of marijuana cultivation in the state’s northern forests. Interviews with regional law enforcement officers, BLM employees, sociologists and growers give different points of view on a common, and growing problem.

While the worst offenders are thought to be large-scale operations run by Mexican drug cartels, even small farmers are implicated. Read the full article on the New York Times.