Drug operators target these places, Burnett said, because they know there are too few rangers to patrol vast parks.
"We cannot keep up with the drug smuggling and smuggling of undocumented aliens that comes across the border through parks on a daily basis. We are aware of the connection with drug cartels. We had a ranger shot and killed last year -- that was a drug thing. It's pretty outrageous," he said, referring to an incident in Arizona.
Hiker Held at Gunpoint
In Sequoia, rangers said, visitors have encountered pot growers. One hiker was held at gunpoint briefly by armed growers, said Al DeLaCruz, Sequoia's chief law enforcement officer. In 2001, hunters in the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in the northern Sierra reported to rangers that they had been menaced by armed pot harvesters.
Park officials said rangers will be stretched thin this summer, searching for marijuana crops and taking care of visitors during the park's busiest season. Tweed said that, because more rangers would be deployed to deal with the marijuana problem, there would be fewer patrolling park roads and campgrounds.
When rangers raid pot gardens in the park, they routinely find filthy work camps with makeshift kitchens, latrines and trash dumps in areas designated as wilderness. Biologists report fish die-offs and water contamination from fertilizers, pesticides and poisons used by growers. DeLaCruz and other rangers said marijuana cultivators are killing deer and other animals.
The way to most of the pot fields is along the road to Mineral King along the southwest border of the park, an area rangers now archly refer to as Marijuana King. The road, a car and a half wide, is only intermittently paved. It is on this stretch, at this time of year, that early morning drops take place -- Mexican nationals piling out of a van or truck, strapping hundreds of pounds of gear on their backs and heading into the hills to establish camps and prepare the gardens for planting.
Authorities say the workers are mainly from the state of Michoacan. Eleven workers apprehended in last year's bust are still in custody in Fresno. None has been forthcoming with authorities.
"They never talk," DeLaCruz said, adding that the workers are paid well -- as much as $4,000 a month in cash -- and they are made to understand that the welfare of their families in Mexico depends on their silence if caught.
