Humboldt County, Calif. is at the horns of a dilemma. A massive amount of unregulated commercial marijuana growth is threatening to upturn the county’s ecological health. According to Anthony Silvaggio, an environmental sociologist with Humboldt State University’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research, the large-scale outburst of growing spots in the mainly rural area of Northern California is causing unthinkable ecological damage.
Silvaggio estimates that a marijuana plant needs three to six gallons of water a season to thrive. At this rate, 20 to 30 percent of the area’s low-flow water reserves is utilized for marijuana growing. In addition, fertilizer and pesticides are freely flowing into the water supply, topsoil is being eroded away and large tracts of the forest — known for their ancient redwoods — are being clear-cutted. Unchecked, this can be a massive environmental headache.
On the other hand, commercial marijuana growers are bringing in at least $415 million into the local economy — more than a quarter of Humboldt County’s entire economy — under conservative measurements.
As reported by the Times-Standard: “It’s no secret that big money is attached to the marijuana trade and that Humboldt County marijuana travels to markets throughout the country. There are the cases that have captured headlines, like those of a NASCAR crew member and a National Football League player recently caught with pounds of Humboldt County’s most famous export product. Then there are those where large amounts of cash are found, like the $200,000 seized one day last month in a pair of grow operation raids off State Route 36.”
While marijuana use is legal in California for medicinal reasons, the federal prohibition on the drug forces a hard-line approach to marijuana enforcement. In 2010, county law enforcement eradicated 203,000 plants. Jennifer Budwig, a researcher with University of Washington’s Pacific Coast Banking School, calculated that this and other seizures constituted a maximum of 2 percent
Marijuana growth is prohibited by the federal government. Any attempt by local government officials to regulate the marijuana growers would be a de facto acceptance of the farming effort, to which the federal government has promised individual prosecution to any official that extends such an acknowledgement of the total crop yield.
Federal prohibition has made the prospect of regulation impossible. Mark Lovelace, a Humboldt County supervisor, said: “This is not about marijuana, good or bad. This is just about the reality that this one industry, due to prohibition, has been essentially granted immunity from regulation. That’s the unintended consequence of federal prohibition.”
It is felt that many species that were recently brought back from the extinction list — such as the chinook, steelhead, and coho salmon — may be endangered by the marijuana grow industry’s unchecked operation. These illegal operations are being set up on public lands, national parks and on industrial sites, where their ecological impact can be significant and long lasting. It has been argued that the damage is not intentional, but the result of a lack of growing education.
Alison Sterling Nichols, an environmental consultant and former advisor to the Emerald Growers Association, a medical cannabis trade group, commented, “You’re talking about safe access for patient. When you’re dealing with people who are truly growing for medical reasons, the whole goal is to be compliant and follow by the rules.”
“A lot of people would have a more environmentally sound farm if they understood the cumulative impacts of everything that is happening in the hills,” she said.