THE GREEN RUSH
State’s medical marijuana boom is wreaking havoc on some fragile habitats.
December 23, 2012, LA Times, |Joe Mozingo

EUREKA, CALIF. — State scientists, grappling with an explosion of marijuana growing on the North Coast, recently studied aerial imagery of a small tributary of the Eel River, spawning grounds for endangered coho salmon and other threatened fish.

   In the remote, 37-square-mile patch of forest, they counted 281 outdoor pot farms and 286 greenhouses, containing an estimated 20,000 plants — mostly fed by water diverted from creeks or a fork of the Eel. The scientists determined the farms were siphoning roughly 18 million gallons from the watershed every year, largely at the time when the salmon most need it.

   “That is just one small watershed,” said Scott Bauer, the state scientist in charge of the coho recovery on the North Coast for the Department of Fish and Game. “You extrapolate that for all the other tributaries, just of the Eel, and you get a lot of marijuana sucking up a lot of water…. This threatens species we are spending millions of dollars to recover.”

   The marijuana boom that came with the sudden rise of medical cannabis in California has wreaked havoc on the fragile habitats of the North Coast and other parts of California. With little or no oversight, farmers have illegally mowed down timber, graded mountaintops flat for sprawling greenhouses, dispersed poisons and pesticides, drained streams and polluted watersheds.

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It may have occurred to readers of my post on backpacking that I was on federal parkland, and I didn’t say anything about getting camping permits. Here’s my attitude and policy about the National Park Service, its regulations, its stewardship, and its rangers:

  I have never got a permit for camping in the national park and I have never camped in one of the designated park camping sites, which are scorched-earth and military looking. I and my natural-world-loving friends camp in places that are not visible to hikers or rangers, and we are immaculate about camp sites, leaving everything as originally found.

   A couple of years ago, scoping out the territory for this hike, I was talking to a ranger in the North Beach parking lot; he was in his SUV, I was in my Tacoma, and we were parked driver side-to-driver side, windows rolled down. He was the best type ranger—one who has the job because of a love of plants and animals and seashore and mountains. We were on the same page, so I told him about my forthcoming trip circumambulating the park, and then I said, “And I’m not getting any stinking permits.” He looked at me for a minute, then put his hand over the park service badge on his sleeve, and said, “You didn’t hear this from me, but you’ll be fine as long as you stay far from where a ranger can drive a vehicle.”

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SunRay Kelley in “Hani’s Man Cave,” which he built last year in the hills near Middleton (Clear Lake Area), Calif. (His friend Hani has a wife and 4 daughters, and SunRay thought he needed some yang space.)

   I got there on a misty December morning, just as he was in the finishing stages. It’s a lovely little building. It improves on the nature surrounding it.

   He calls this a “kit.” He cut trees and milled lumber for the 12-sided, 14-½’ wooden yurt on his property in Washington and trucked it down to California. SunRay says he can ship kits like this anywhere: https://www.sunraykelley.com

   This interior wall is sculpted cob, a SunRay specialty (the secret is clay), but it’s essentially a wooden building. The porch is framed with locally-harvested manzanita, bay, and pine.

More on pp. 100-101, Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter