War of the weed

The cartels dispatch their troops down isolated roads in steep terrain in February and March. Growers bushwhack a couple of miles into the woods, carrying 25-pound tanks of propane, 50-pound sacks of fertilizer, pesticides and hoes. Periodic food drops supplement poached animals. The farmers clear the understory of foliage, leaving a canopy for camouflage; they cut terraces in the slopes, run irrigation hoses from creeks and rivers for miles and carve out a sprawling camp. For every five acres of marijuana, a grower will develop 180 acres of wilderness.

When Sequoia restoration ecologist Athena Demetry heard about the "gardens," she thought, "How bad could it be? Then you see entire slopes covered with this. They'll put up tarps, have cooking areas, make tables out of branches. You walk down the trail and see more and more [camps]. You know you're just seeing the edge of the problem."

Last February Demetry got enough funding to rehabilitate pot zones for the first time. With a team from the California Conservation Corps, she restored 25 garbage pits for 50 gardens and 13 camps in an area on the east fork of the Kaweah. She found pesticides in one creek. Now growers are moving deeper into the backcountry, making it harder to get restoration crews in safely. Demetry has half the budget she had last year.

To dent the pot tide Park Service officials installed a gate at the entrance to Mineral King Road, making it harder for growers to reach favorite haunts. The park's special agent has submitted a request for 10 law enforcement agents, for 24-hour surveillance.

But what Sequoia officials say they really need are helicopters. Last year the special agent had access to a Black Hawk helicopter unit out of Riverside through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection program, but it was reassigned to the Mexican border this year. "The Black Hawk unit really worked," he says. "We discovered three major gardens with it."

The U.S. government has sent 60 helicopters and about $4 billion to Colombia since 2000 to eradicate coca farms, causing Rep. George P. Radanovich (R-Mariposa) to note that "it does make you wonder why we're going all the way down there.... We may have to rethink it and beef up our attempts in the forests and national parks."

The special agent at Sequoia National Park says he needs another $200,000 annually for Operation No Grow, a five-year plan to eradicate marijuana farms in the park. Sequoia did get an additional $45,000 this year, but officials say it's not nearly enough.

Two weeks ago, Sen. Dianne Feinstein released a letter, signed by Radanovich, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) and Rep. Mary Bono (R-Palm Springs), calling on National Park Service Director Fran Mainella to increase law enforcement to stem cultivation in the parks, estimate damage by growers and come up with a plan to restore affected areas.

In the meantime, with federal budgets allocated for the year, Sequoia officials prepare for another season of raids as deep in former wilderness untold numbers of growers hope for a bumper harvest.