National forests and parks — long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels — have become home to some of the most polluted pockets of wilderness in America because of the toxic chemicals needed to eke lucrative harvests from rocky mountainsides, federal officials said.
The grow sites have taken hold from the West Coast's Cascade Mountains, as well as on federal lands in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Seven hundred grow sites were discovered on U.S. Forest Service land in California alone in 2007 and 2008 — and authorities say the 1,800-square-mile Sequoia National Forest is the hardest hit.
Mexican marijuana cartels sully US forests, parks
Weed and bug sprays, some long banned in the U.S., have been smuggled to the marijuana farms. Plant growth hormones have been dumped into streams, and the water has then been diverted for miles in PVC pipes.
Rat poison has been sprinkled over the landscape to keep animals away from tender plants. And many sites are strewn with the carcasses of deer and bears poached by workers during the five-month growing season that is now ending.
"What's going on on public lands is a crisis at every level," said Forest Service agent Ron Pugh. "These are America's most precious resources, and they are being devastated by an unprecedented commercial enterprise conducted by armed foreign nationals. It is a huge mess."
11 comments:
Another reason to legalize it and tax it. Budget balanced. Problems solved!
A giant electrified wall is the only answer. And maybe use illegals caught in the USA to build it - free labor- no social security/medicaid to pay.
These people will take everything we have.. our forests, our money and our youth with their drugs.
This is about about marijuana and not all drugs. Alcohol is better because...
Hey but immigration is good right?
Enforce policy on illegals and DEPORT!
And this has to do with Queens how?
People from Queens who smoke marijuana and think it's harmless should realize what is really going on.
There are a bunch of illegal working right now on a house next door . Who should I call?
This story is pure crap propagated by the multi-billion dollar "War on Drugs" cronies.
Mexican Illegals + Marijuana = FEAR!
Taxpayer Fear = Taxpayer Dollars
Reefer Madness anyone?
Where's Wade Nichols when you really need him?
Where's Wade Nichols when you really need him?
Sorry, I was smoking a doob. What were you saying?
Hey Wade, don't bogart...
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