final blog- Emerald triangle

My research topic is on the environmental impacts of illegal outdoor marihuana cultivation, specifically in the Emerald Triangle. The Emerald Triangle is made up of Humboldt county, Mendocino county, and Trinity county, in northern California. Starting in the 1960’s this area became a well-known cannabis producing region. Nixons war on drugs did not stop the production of the cannabis plant, only the importation from Mexico. The displacement of the supply of cannabis caused a balloon effect, because there was still demand for the plant. Drug traffickers responded by moving operations to the Emerald Triangle. Humboldt county and the surrounding region have low populations, are made up of forests, mountains, and wilderness, an ideal place to hide from the police. These organizations operate marihuana farms on public, private, and even tribal lands.1 Illegal grows damage the local ecosystem as they cause waterways to dry out, deforestation, land fragmentation, and poison the micro ecosystem therefore impacting the entire ecosystem of the forest.2 Humboldt county has permits that allow people to grow legally. However, legally permitted grows have no environmental regulations, and cause similar negative impacts on the ecosystem.3 However, with recent legalization in California, our state has the potential to lead by example, by creating an environmentally sustainable model for cannabis cultivation.  

Before researching this topic, I was aware of illegal growing to an extent, but I did not know the severity of its impact on the ecosystem. I was surprised by the number of books and articles that talk about this issue has it is still a recent development on an illicit substance. I used excerpts from the book Where There’s Smoke: The environmental science, public policy, and politics of Marijuana. There are multiple case studies throughout the book on different aspects of cannabis from the impacts of toxic pesticides, growing on public and tribal lands, immigration in the black market, to legalization and regulation. An article I used was from the journal Frontiers in ecology and the environment. This source is very specific as it provides the data behind water usage in the area, and how it creates land fragmentation.  

   

  To understand the impacts of marihuana growing, the book Where There’s Smoke, has a chapter dedicated to the case study of the Hoopa valley reservation, belonging to the Hupa people. Their reservation is considered sacred land as they say it their home of ancestral village sites.4 Their land encompasses the Trinity river, and Hoopa valley, a mountainous, forest rich area with prime land for agriculture. These areas have restricted access, dirt roads, and very little traffic. There have been several reports and sightings of people hiding on their land to cultivate cannabis, and the damages are very evident only a few weeks into growing the plants. During the season one outdoor cannabis plant will use up to 300 gallons of water a harvest. If we do some simple math, 300 gallons a plant times 200 plants that is 60,000 gallons of water for one harvest. 200 plants are a conservative estimate for one operation. Usually there are several grow operations in an area, and thousands in the entire Emerald Triangle. The significance of using thousands of gallons of water leaves rivers, streams, and creeks dry by the end of a season. Water ways and water usage are important because it effects the already endangered salmon, trout, and salamanders. Leaving water ways dried out is lethal to these endangered fish, and usually leaves them dead. Running out of water in a certain area also affects the rest of the ecosystem as bears don’t have fish to eat, or water to drink, therefore, compromising the rest of the forest in that area.  

Toxic materials such as fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and rodenticides run off into water ways. The toxic waste seeps into the micro ecosystem, affecting the bacteria, plants, water, and bugs. Pesticide and rodenticide poisoning leave bears, deer, fox, coyotes, owls, raven and fish poisoned to death. In the Hoopa valley, adult fishers (a type of bear) were tested for anticoagulant rodenticide, they found 79% had tested positive for the toxic material.5 They also found that being exposed to the rodenticide causes them to slowly become sick and eventually fall prey to coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, which usually doesn’t happen when the fisher is healthy. The effects of outdoor growing impact the local ecosystem on almost every level.  

I would argue that it is not only illegal grows impacting wildlife, grows legally permitted by Humboldt county do not have environmental regulations, therefore damaging the ecosystem on the same scale. A permitted grow operation has no environmental regulation as well, free to use pesticides and other toxic materials while are not held responsible by the county for their clean up or environmentally conscious practices.6 A nonprofit organization, Friends of the eel river sued the Humboldt county board of supervisors for failing to protect native fish and waterways from the effects of cannabis cultivation. Friends of the Eel River’s Conservation Director Scott Greacen said: “The impacts of Humboldt’s cannabis industry are driving salmon and steelhead extinct in our watersheds. The County has gone ahead with permitting even more operations without doing the work needed to understand, much less minimize, those impacts.”7 The lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court on June 6, 2018.  

Prop 64 passed in 2018 here in California. With legalization in California, we have the capacity to set the standard for federal legalization. We need cannabis federally legal to combat those exploiting our forests. We need environmentally conscious practices in permitted grows. California should set strict environmental regulations for permitted grows. California should offer ways for people to transition into the legal market. If we allow these environmental problems to accumulate the damages might be irreversible.