cannabisnews.com: Marijuana: Fires' Timing Could Devastate Crops





Marijuana: Fires' Timing Could Devastate Crops
Posted by CN Staff on August 01, 2002 at 11:04:36 PT
By Bryan Denson
Source: Oregon Live 
Flames are consuming a bit more than towering trees and the occasional cabin as two wildfires roar through the Siskiyou National Forest. At least some of the vegetation that has made Southwest Oregon famous -- and long ago took a generation of hippie kids off welfare -- also is going up in smoke.   Some of the world's highest-grade marijuana, its pedigree sometimes compared to Cuba's cigars, is grown in the Siskiyou National Forest and the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, where the Florence and Sour Biscuit fires have consumed about 183,000 acres of steep forest and rock-studded canyons. 
"We're getting reports from some of the firefighters out there of marijuana grows," said Lt. Lee Harman of the Josephine County sheriff's office. "But," he added with a grin, "we're not gonna put our Marijuana Eradication Team ahead of the firefighters." It's unclear how much marijuana is burning -- or in danger of burning -- as the two fires move through the mountains. But Linda Templin, a crime analyst for the Josephine Interagency Narcotics Team, or JOINT, said she's 100 percent certain that marijuana -- grown indoors or inconspicuously in the woods -- is burning. "We're positive there are plants in that area, and they're being consumed," she said. "How many we don't know." The sheriff's Marijuana Eradication Team, funded by three federal agencies to seek and destroy marijuana and catch growers on public lands, is expected to kick into gear this month with surveillance flyovers of cannabis crops, most of which probably took root last spring. But Lt. Brian Anderson, who once headed the team, said the fires might have lessened the team's load. "The work," he said with a chuckle Wednesday, "has gone up in smoke." As a rule, federal officials do not allow the eradication team to fly over the Kalmiopsis Wilderness low enough to spot any marijuana crops. "Of course, the dopers know that," Anderson said, "so that's where they go to grow." Wildfires have pierced the Kalmiopsis, as well as vast acreage in the Siskiyou National Forest. So with helicopter crews dumping water on the blazes, it's unlikely the eradication team will be flying there anytime soon, officials said. "We'll have to see what restrictions are in place because of this fire," Anderson said. "There are other places in Josephine County we can go play." Late in growing season Anderson said he couldn't begin to guess how the burning of marijuana plants on federal lands might affect the local economy. But a few locals familiar with growing cannabis said wildfires this late in the summer could have a devastating impact on serious growers' gardens. It's too late in the season, they said, to be ensured of producing full-size, commercial grade plants from replanted stock. Marijuana has been a cash crop in the southwestern Oregon county since at least the mid-1960s. But by 1976, new methods of growing the plants caught hold in and around the verdant Illinois Valley, once hailed as the Italy of Oregon for its abundant agriculture. "It went from a couple hundred dollars a pound to $1,600 a pound," said Michael Garnier, a Takilma entrepreneur who put down roots in the community in the late 1960s. A lot of hippie kids suddenly went off welfare, many eventually investing their fortunes in legal businesses, said Garnier, who once beat a marijuana rap by pleading his own case dressed as Thomas Jefferson, complete with a three-cornered hat. Nowadays, locals say, some of the marijuana grown in the region sells for as much as $4,000 a pound. Connoisseur-grade "Some of the best growers in the world are in Oregon," said Steven Hager, editor in chief of High Times magazine in New York. "And many of the seed strains developed in Oregon are now available in international seed banks in Europe and Canada." Hager said a wide range of marijuana is grown in southwestern Oregon, where many growers were forced to migrate after run-ins with police in Northern California. The high-end crops are connoisseur-grade, he said, and among the best in the world. The reason marijuana grows so well in the region might be expressed, in part, by the slogan on a sign that arches over the main drag in nearby Grants Pass: "It's the climate." Marijuana grows well in the area because the days are long and dry, the dense soil is full of volcanic nutrients and the light patterns are almost perfect, according to a few locals familiar with growing cannabis. Those elements make for plants high in tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the drug's active ingredient. Some growers have taken to planting marijuana on platforms in the trees, said Anderson, which prevents the plants from becoming snacks for deer and camouflages them from aircraft. "That's novel," he said. Complete Title: Marijuana: Fires' Timing Could Devastate Crops, Locals Say Source: Oregon Live (OR)Author: Bryan DensonPublished: August 1, 2002Copyright: 2002 OregonLive.comWebsite: http://www.oregonlive.com/Contact: http://www.oregonlive.com/contactus/High Times Magazinehttp://www.hightimes.com/CannabisNews - Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on August 01, 2002 at 13:30:20 PT
Clearcutting in the Blackhills????
Under the Daschle/Sierra Club/Wilderness Society deal, which was quitely attached as a rider to the Defense Appropriations Bill, the Forest Service will allow timber companies to begin logging in the Beaver Park roadless area and in the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve. These two areas harbor some of the last remaining stands of old-growth forest in the Black Hills. All of these timber sales will be shielded from environmental lawsuits, even from organizations that objected to the deal.The logging plan was consecrated in the name of fire prevention. The goal of the bill, Daschle said, "is to reduce the risk of forest fire by getting [logging] crews on the ground as quickly as possible to start thinning." It's long been the self-serving contention of the timber lobby that the only way to prevent forest fires is to log them first. The environmental movement has rightly countered that the real problem is a century of unbridled logging of old growth forests and fire suppression, which have created conditions ripe for the catastrophic blazes that are scorching the West this summer. In a single blow, the Sierra Club and Wilderness Society legitimized the timber industry's cockeyed claim. And now there will be hell to pay.Strange, ugly, wrong.
Dark Deeds in the Black Hills
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Comment #4 posted by releafer on August 01, 2002 at 13:21:34 PT
Tree growing.............................
Started on Maui in the 1970's at the same time marijuana interdiction started by chopper and photo.How long before the "NO POT FOR YOU" NAZI, will give some thought to      WE WILL NEVER QUIT, GROWING!!!!!
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Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on August 01, 2002 at 13:08:32 PT:
Play...
I've long held that the WoSD is actually the largest 'workfare' project in existence. The problem is, the people enrolled in it were ostensiby supposed to learn useful skills to help them later in life...to 'get on with their lives'...never do. They remain trapped in the cycle of doing useless work day in and day out, and never produce anything but concentrated misery for their paymasters - us.'Play', the man said...sounds like the next step in de-institutionalizing the hopelessly 'mentally challenged'. Put them in uniforms and they get to...play. Dangerously.Why not hand them some firefighting gear and let them help the real heroes?
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Comment #2 posted by null on August 01, 2002 at 11:46:13 PT
double meaning
a crime analyst for the Josephine Interagency Narcotics Team, or JOINT, Apparently now it will be evidence of terrorist intent to utter "I'm going to smoke a joint" due to the uncertain interpretation. ;P
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Comment #1 posted by darwin on August 01, 2002 at 11:33:50 PT
Nice comment you Jurassic Nark
"We'll have to see what restrictions are in place because of this fire," Anderson said. "There are other places in Josephine County we can go play." Speaks volumes, doesn't it.
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