I wrote last year about how hikers can encounter marijuana growers on northern California hiking trails, and what you should do if you encounter a marijuana growing operation. In the same post I also discussed my encounter with likely marijuana growers.
Employees of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest recently cleaned up a pot grow site in the backwoods:
A marijuana site cleanup took place on the Shasta Lake District of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest (STNF) on April 7, 2010. Forest personnel worked throughout the day to clean up litter from abandoned Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) marijuana sites.
A helicopter was used to transport large amounts of trash, hose, propane tanks, insecticides and other waste from the marijuana sites to then be properly disposed of.
“The forest is conducting these procedures to ensure the safety of forest visitors and agency employees,” STNF Patrol Captain Chad Krogstad said.
In the past six months STNF personnel have initiated and completed clean up on two DTO sites on the Mount Shasta Ranger District and three sites on the Shasta Lake Ranger District. Some of the garbage has been packed out on foot, hauled away in vehicles, and flown out of remote sites by helicopters. At one site personnel collected around 300 pounds of trash, four miles of hose, three propane tanks and one gallon of insecticide.
Illegal marijuana cultivation poses a public safety risk and directly harms the environment. The illegal use of pesticides can cause extensive long-term damage to natural resources. The use of herbicides, pesticides and rodenticides can cause extensive and long-term damage to ecosystems and impact public drinking water for hundreds of miles. Timber and vegetation are destroyed, much needed water is diverted from watersheds, streams, lakes, and public drinking water supplies, and fish and wildlife habitat are destroyed.
“The Forest Service will continue to work with our partners at the federal, state and local levels to address the use of public lands to grow marijuana illegally,” Kristy Cottini, STNF Shasta Lake District Ranger, said. “This is something we take very seriously that can have negative effects on fish and wildlife habitats, as well as other legitimate uses of National Forest system lands.”
For more information please contact Public Affairs Officer Rita Vollmer at (530) 226-2595. Visit our web site for information on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest www.fs.usda.gov/stnf.
Be careful out there, especially when you’re hiking cross-country near year-round streams.
Shasta-Trinity National Forest marijuana grow site clean-up via helicopter. Photo courtesy of Shasta-Trinity National Forest
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Thanks for sharing tips on how to deal with this. It is a problem that is getting out of hand and is extremely dangerous to the unsuspecting hiker.
Twitter: @TheJohnSoares
You’re right Tracy.
All hikers need to be very careful this time of year, especially when hiking on the more remote U.S. National Forest and Bureau of Land Management lands.
It’s also scary that grows are happening just outside Mt Shasta city limits. It used to be the remote back country hikers that had to worry. The new grows endanger anybody out on a weekend afternoon hike:
http://www.ridgecrestca.com/state_news/x393146558/Rainbow-Ridge-marijuana-bust-yields-39-115-plants
Twitter: @TheJohnSoares
Paul, I remember reading about this in the paper last September. I’d forgotten it was so close to Lake Siskiyou and places I hike.
Yeah you left out who did all that work that would have been job corps. And it took place sept,2009
Twitter: @TheJohnSoares
Thanks for your hard work!
This specific incident was described in the press release as occurring on April 7, 2010, and that “forest personnel” did the clean-up.
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