Home | Community | Message Board

MRCA Tyroler Gluckspilze
This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.


Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop: MagicBag.co All-In-One Bags That Don't Suck, Certified Organic All-In-One Grow Bags by Magic Bag   North Spore North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits & Cultivation Supplies   Original Sensible Seeds Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds, Bulk Cannabis Seeds

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
6,000 seedlings found at clandestine pot garden in Big Basin [CA]
    #8366073 - 05/05/08 06:47 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

6,000 seedlings found at clandestine pot garden in Big Basin
May 5, 2008 - mercurynews.com

BIG BASIN - Sheriff's deputies and State Parks rangers on Monday removed more than 6,000 young marijuana plants from two clandestine pot gardens planted in the same location in Big Basin State Park as a large grow law enforcement officers uprooted three years ago.

The sheriff's narcotics enforcement team was tipped off to the replanted garden by a volunteer who helped clean up the forest after the marijuana grows were eradicated in 2005.

No arrests were made, but deputies suspect at least one grower raced into the wilderness as officers approached the makeshift camp around 9 a.m. Removing the marijuana plants, not arresting the caretakers, was the top priority although a police dog was called in to follow the fresh tracks, according to Sgt. Steve Carney, who heads the Sheriff's Office Narcotics Enforcement Team.

Large-scale marijuana gardens sited on remote areas of public land are an increasing problem in Santa Cruz County and across the West, according to law enforcement officers. Deputies found more than 43,000 pot plants in 28 plantations, including eight on public land in 2006, the biggest grow year on record in the county.

Carney said the majority of the marijuana-growing operations his team uproots during the spring and summer months are controlled by Mexican drug cartels. The cartels pay caretakers to live in improvised camps at the sites to tend and protect the gardens during the two- to four-month growing cycles. The farmers, typically three to five per grow site, are paid at harvest.

Pot plantations similar to the one removed Monday have been found in Big Basin State Park, as well as Castle Rock State Park, the Soquel Demonstration Forest and the Long Ridge Open Space in recent years. Many have been a stone's-throw from popular hiking trails and when they are raided, deputies generally find guns and other weapons in the camps.

There are no local estimates about what percentage of the clandestine marijuana gardens are located and removed. After a huge haul two years ago, deputies found few outdoor grows in 2007.

"Last year was slow and I don't think it's because we fixed the problem," Carney said. "There are probably a lot we miss."

Carney thought it was possible deputies actually missed a large section of the Big Basin garden three years ago - they discovered plants just over the ridge from the camp on Monday. Because the land was cleared and terraced, deputies believe it was likely used for a marijuana grow in the past.

State Parks rangers who hiked in with sheriff's deputies Monday morning said the pot growers' return to the park was frustrating. Trying to remove the trash left behind and rehabilitate the land will be a drain on the already cash-strapped park system.

"Part of our mission as a State Park is to preserve the natural diversity," State Parks ranger supervisor Kevin Williams said. "When someone carves out a swath [of land] like this it destroys the diversity."

Authorities removed about 5,000 plants from the area in August 2005. That fall, volunteers from the High Sierra Trail Crew, a Frenso-based organization, spent three days collecting garbage, filling in irrigation ditches and hauling out pesticides. They removed 2,800 pounds of trash from the sites, which snake up a hillside above Blooms Creek campground on the west side of the park.

The grow deputies removed Monday was less mature than the previous gardens at the site and a caretaker log found in the camp reported they started preparing the area in mid-April.

"This is the earliest we've gone out," Carney said.

As a result, deputies worry the growers will come back later this year and replant the narrow, terraced drainages.

"The downside of hitting them this early is they can come back and replant because all the infrastructure is here for them," Carney said, likening the deputies' bust to "a weather setback."

There were 2,360 seedlings growing in the hillside Monday, according to Carney. Another 3,760 plants were sprouting in germination boxes covered with bird nets.

A mature marijuana plant grown outdoors can produce at least 4 ounces of dried pot, which has a street value of about $1,200, according to Carney. That means the grow eradicated Monday could have brought in more than $730,000 at the end of the season. Carney estimated the plants would have been ready for harvest in as few as two months.

"They were pretty good sized plants last time, but that was August," Williams said.

Williams was thankful they'd located and removed the gardens so early in the season because that meant the growers had less time to contaminate the area with fertilizers, pesticides and human waste.

But the impact on the land was already evident: young tan oak trees with lopped-off tops, trails accessing the gardens that were so well-worn deputies called them "highways" and tuna can-sized dishes of poison left next to the young marijuana plants.

"They've completely denuded the under-story here," Williams said.

He pointed to loose soil that will erode much faster without root systems to hold it in place, especially because the area of the Santa Cruz Mountains were the park is situated gets 60-70 inches of rain a year.

The chemicals will contaminate the seasonal streams and groundwater, but also will be eaten by rats and squirrels. When they are consumed by birds of prey and larger mammals the poison "goes up the food chain," Williams said.

Park rangers likely will hike back into the grow this spring to remove the trash and debris, including whatever chemicals they can find, according to Williams.

"This will be a pretty big job," Williams said.

In addition to the germination trays and hundreds of feet of irrigation tubing, rangers will need to remove a campsite built into a grove of trees near the base of the gardens. The site, which likely provided housing two growers, had a radio, a propane stove and a makeshift weight set - dumbbells made from sand-filled garbage bags roped to tree branches. Deputies also found a collapsible .22-caliber rifle, several knives, a full bottle of Patron tequila and fresh food - eggs, tortillas, limes, tomatoes and onions.

Although the gardens and camp will be removed, it's unlikely this is the last time deputies will hike into this site and find a pot plantation, Carney said.

"You do a garden and in three to five years, they'll be back," he said.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
InvisibleOrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group
Male User Gallery


Registered: 04/01/07
Posts: 45,441
Loc: Under the C
Re: 6,000 seedlings found at clandestine pot garden in Big Basin [CA] [Re: veggie]
    #8366159 - 05/05/08 07:17 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

"Part of our mission as a State Park is to preserve the natural diversity," State Parks ranger supervisor Kevin Williams said. "When someone carves out a swath [of land] like this it destroys the diversity."





"And," he continued, that is why I advocate using park funds to fight for the legalization of marijuana instead spending money on helicopters and weapons. You see, if marijuana was legal, people would simply grow it in their backyard gardens, thus preserving the national forests."


--------------------

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineNobodyImportant
Stranger
Male
Registered: 05/04/08
Posts: 1,016
Loc: Jawjuh.
Last seen: 11 years, 7 months
Re: 6,000 seedlings found at clandestine pot garden in Big Basin [CA] [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
    #8366377 - 05/05/08 08:15 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

WOO !!

We need to just plant EVERYWHERE !!

Plant more crops than they can destroy :smile:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Invisiblederx
who run it
 User Gallery


Registered: 05/29/03
Posts: 2,459
Loc: dx/dt
Re: 6,000 seedlings found at clandestine pot garden in Big Basin [CA] [Re: NobodyImportant]
    #8367194 - 05/05/08 11:24 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

its called overgrowing the government and everyone should do their part.


--------------------
better living through chemistry

OVERGROW the government!!

it's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom, ok, thats what it is.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflinePreyToGod
peace.pot.microdot.
Male


Registered: 01/23/08
Posts: 693
Loc: truckin,,,
Last seen: 14 years, 30 days
Re: 6,000 seedlings found at clandestine pot garden in Big Basin [CA] [Re: derx]
    #8368292 - 05/06/08 10:22 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

derx said:
its called overgrowing the government and everyone should do their part.




amen.


--------------------
"We live together, we act on, and react to, one another but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves... By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude." Huxuly
the man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed

just because we all see the:greenshroom:
doesn't mean we all see the same
:mushroom2:

I pushed my fingers through the earth, returned this flower to the dirt. so it could live, I walked away now. But I know... Not a day goes by when I don't feel this burn. There's a point we pass from which we can't return. I've felt the cold rain of the coming storm
None but ourselves can free our minds.”



Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineGroomies
Ghost
 User Gallery


Registered: 08/16/07
Posts: 1,119
Last seen: 7 years, 3 months
Re: 6,000 seedlings found at clandestine pot garden in Big Basin [CA] [Re: PreyToGod]
    #8369412 - 05/06/08 03:44 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

thats a good idea.. just throw seeds EVERYWHERE. lets see if the DEA is willing to destroy the whole city just to get rid of it.


--------------------
:hotidea::hotidea::hotidea:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1

Shop: MagicBag.co All-In-One Bags That Don't Suck, Certified Organic All-In-One Grow Bags by Magic Bag   North Spore North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits & Cultivation Supplies   Original Sensible Seeds Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds, Bulk Cannabis Seeds


Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Police Seize $800,000 Worth Of Pot Plants motamanM 4,018 1 05/13/03 11:28 PM
by Hans_Moleman
* 5,000 pounds of pot found in vacant home veggieM 928 0 03/25/05 08:47 PM
by veggie
* 9,000 Lbs. Of Pot Seized In Detroit veggieM 1,853 10 02/20/06 04:10 PM
by motaman
* 5,000 pounds of pot, worth $4 million, seized [AZ] veggieM 1,516 2 08/23/05 01:37 PM
by LeftyBurnz
* Park's Pot Problem Explodes motamanM 2,868 3 05/15/03 04:15 PM
by JssMthrFcknChrst
* 23,652 pot plants seized in state park [CA]
( 1 2 all )
veggieM 7,871 33 01/04/07 01:47 PM
by white_noise
* Poisonous garden motamanM 837 1 08/07/05 03:06 PM
by Stonerguy
* 3 Pounds of Pot for MMJ Patients Ravus 1,523 4 08/14/04 02:41 AM
by Locus

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: motaman, veggie, Alan Rockefeller, Mostly_Harmless
1,606 topic views. 0 members, 7 guests and 3 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2024 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.028 seconds spending 0.007 seconds on 14 queries.