Illegal marijuana grow ops dot California state parks. This program repairs that damage

Some 400 illegal marijuana grow sites have been documented in or near California state parks by a program to combat the environmental impact of illicit cultivation.

"Some of these sites are really old, they were active in like the 1980s, and some of these sites are very recent," said Alex Tabone, State Park Peace Officer Supervisor with the Cannabis Watershed Protection Program.

Just this week, California announced two busts conducted by Tabone and his team in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies, including near Saddleback Butte State Park in Antelope Valley, where more than 9,600 pounds of the plants were destroyed.

Discovery and eradication are just the first steps in the long road to restoring the land.

Growing rent-free in state parks

California's pristine parklands have long been a target of illegal grows; it's a battle that state park officials have been fighting for just as long.

The legalization of marijuana in California brought additional funding to tackle the problem. Taxes from licensed marijuana sales went into creating the Cannabis Watershed Protection Program in 2019 to repair these ecosystems.

"The sites range from teensy to gigantic, massive complexes," said Tabone. The smallest grow ops he's seen consisted of just a dozen of plants, grown "probably by teenagers."

The large ones are intricate criminal operations with "up to over 10,000 plants spread across multiple grow sites over a huge area, with multiple water diversions and multiple campsites where the growers are living there full time on site," he said.

Oftentimes there are weapons, too, to fend off not just law enforcement, but rival criminal intents.

Not 'a light footprint'

Some of these large-scale sites, said Tabone, had operated undetected for years before being finally discovered.

"Growers don't have a lot of due regard to having a light footprint on the land," he said.

Officials have found piles of trash and carcasses of animals shot dead by growers to protect their groves. Tabone said he's seen terraces cut into the soil and native vegetations removed for planting.

"Some of these places like in the Santa Monica Mountains, it's relatively dry," Tabone said. "So once you start messing with the soil, it takes a long time for the landscape to recover."

Growers use pesticides like Carbofuran to ward off insects. Such chemicals are considered highly toxic to birds, mammals and fish, with long term reproductive effects, and are strictly limited by the EPA. Once they're used in grow operations, they get washed down into the soil and beyond by rain.

Tabone cites the Topanga Creek in Topanga State Park as an example.

"It has one of the best remaining steelhead populations in Southern California," he said. "Meanwhile, we've got growers right up the hill that are dumping all sorts of harmful pesticides that is washing down in that creek, harming those endangered fish's chances of survival."

To feed the thirst of these groves, Tabone said creeks are dammed to divert water, eventually sending all the bad things — trash, toxins, fertilizers — from the grow all the way to the ocean.

"They're trying to get their crop out as fast as possible, no matter what the consequences are for the landscape," he said.

After discovery

So it's no coincidence that the program is conceived with protecting watersheds in mind, which can magnify environmental harms well beyond the immediate areas.

The process after site discovery and plant eradication could take many years, like at a grow op discovered at Malibu Creek State Park in 2009, a good decade before the watershed program was established.

Bagging it up

Recently, remaining trash was airlifted from there by helicopters. Clean up efforts were also undertaken in Topanga Canyon and two other state parks.

"We go out there, we look at the environmental damage that's still out there, we find the trash that's still out there, we find the chemicals that are still out there," Tabone said. "Then we come up with a plan on how to get all that stuff out in a remediation operation."

"Depending on how remote it is, oftentimes we have to bag it up, put it in big ol' super sacks," he said, for the chopper to pick up.

About 1,000 pounds of waste were removed from both Malibu Creek and Topanga Canyon.

Return to nature

Restoration is an ongoing and multifaceted process — be it the removal of a road used by growers, or in the case of Topanga Creek, part of an undertaking that's much bigger in scope.

"The fish have been hammered by Carbofuran leaking into their waterway for years, and we're going to give them a help out now by restoring the lagoon that they need to survive."

How you can help

State officials say if you do spot an illegal grow operation, they recommend leaving as quietly and quickly as possible.

• If you can do so safely on your mobile phone they ask that you "record your GPS location and/or take a photo."
• Once you're out of the area, they ask you to call 877-PRK-TIPS (877-775-8477) or email watershed@parks.ca.gov .