Marijuana Plants Seized In Earth Day Cleanup Operation

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (CA)
Marijuana Plants Seized In Earth Day Cleanup Operation

On April 22nd, Earth Day, National Park Service rangers, aided by NPS special investigators, agents from the Office of Homeland Security, Tulare County Sheriff's Office deputies, and California Highway Patrol officers, located and removed a new marijuana grow site in Sequoia National Park. Rangers seized 7,922 plants, many not yet in the ground, and destroyed the infrastructure and camping area to keep the growers from coming back to the area. Although they hoped to capture growers tending the site, the two people encountered fled and eluded capture by running down a steep embankment. Rangers tracked and pursued them while Tulare deputies conducted road surveillance and officers from the California Highway Patrol searched from an airplane. Efforts to find the pair proved fruitless. Investigators worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to obtain a search warrant for the tent found on site. Evidence collected has been submitted to the Drug Enforcement Agency lab in San Francisco to be analyzed and may lead to future arrests. The growing of illegal marijuana on public lands is a major threat to national treasures like Sequoia National Park. Since the year 2000, more than 157,000 plants have been removed from the park by protection rangers. Over the past three-and-one-half years, rangers and natural resource staff have also found and removed 18,465 pounds of garbage and hazardous waste, including 445 small propane canisters, empty and partially empty packaging from 9.5 gallons of liquid insecticides, 12,900 pounds of fertilizer, and 22.7 miles of irrigation hose. All of this was collected from more than 105 grow sites and camps illegally cut into the wilderness of Sequoia National Park. The long-term damage that this illegal activity has done to once pristine wilderness is not easy to evaluate, but it is evident in the alterations to the land and the volume of poisons and fertilizers that have been used by the growers in connection with these activities. A more extensive cleanup of this most recent site is planned for later this year. The investigation continues.