FOREST SERVICE SENDING AGENTS BACK TO WOODS

ANTI-MARIJUANA DRIVE IN FORESTS IN CALIFORNIA

Thu Aug 30, 2007 6:06PM EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration has launched a campaign to eradicate thousands of acres of illegal marijuana plants from California's national forests, the U.S. Forest Service said on Thursday. Officials complain that crime rings have planted around 6,000 acres of secret marijuana plantations in federal forests and often send armed squatters to set up camp and tend the lucrative crop. In one recent three-week period, officials pulled up more than 280,000 marijuana plants, worth about $1.8 billion, largely in California's Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Sixteen people were arrested and 10 weapons were seized in those operations.

Mark Rey, the Agriculture Department undersecretary whose portfolio includes the Forest Service, announced the eradication campaign in Fresno, California, before the fall marijuana harvest. Officials say the burgeoning crop not only breeds organized crime, but attracts traffickers from other countries who damage forests by diverting water and thinning brush and trees. "Everyone has come together to realize this is a serious problem right now," said Janice Gauthier, a Forest Service spokeswoman in California. The new campaign will seek and destroy marijuana plants in national forests and step up clearing of plantation sites of fertilizer or chemicals.

Pubdate: Sun, 09 Sep 2007

Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)

Website: http://www.redding.com/

FOREST SERVICE SENDING AGENTS BACK TO WOODS

Our view: The rise in giant backcountry pot gardens coincides with a sharp drop in the Forest Service's law enforcement staffing in California. A reversal of the second trend holds promise for combating the first. Anyone who loves the north state's forests has to be happy about the U.S. Forest Service's plans to aggressively push back against large-scale marijuana growing on public lands. While pot growers have always taken advantage of our vast open spaces, plantations with tens of thousands of plants have become increasingly common in the past decade in Northern California's backcountry. Fertilized by huge profits and, authorities say, the organization of drug cartels, the problem has grown like an out-of-control weed.

The Forest Service plans to approximately double the number of law-enforcement agents -- to 160 -- working California's national forests by next year's growing season. Those 160 officers will still be stretched thin over the 22 million acres of national forest in the state. (By contrast, the Redding police department has 119 sworn officers patrolling and investigating crimes in the city limits.) Still, the new people will make a dent, and they'll reverse a decline in law enforcement. Back in 1992, according to Forest Service documents, the region had 175 officers. It's not hard to connect the dots between the shrinking number of badges in the past 15 years and increasingly brazen growers.

Critics of the "war on drugs" argue that it's a futile fight, that someone will find a way to supply illicit smokers' demand. True enough, but they can find somewhere else to do it than our recreation and wilderness areas. And the state outlawed marijuana in 1913 -- nearly a century ago. It's only in the past few years that these massive gardens have started popping up all over. The high-profile marijuana news this summer has sparked a lot of debate about our drug laws.

Some Californians think the best resolution would be to legalize pot. Indeed, in parts of the state that's not a fringe view but well in the political mainstream. Late last month, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to send a letter to the North Coast's Rep. Mike Thompson seeking federal legalization of the herb. Mendocino County's supervisors approved a similar resolution in June.

Would such a measure even pass the laugh test on our side of the Coast Range? Can anyone imagine, say, Shasta County Supervisor Linda Hartman voting to legalize pot? There's a lot of talk about illegal immigration and border control these days, but the government ought to have passport control somewhere along Highway 299. Plainly the Redwood Coast is another country.