Most rural and small city communities located in what has been called the “Emerald Triangle” region have seen an exponential increase in marijuana production since the passing of Proposition 215, creating a flood of marijuana on the open market—driving prices downward. The drop in price has perpetuated the production of even more cannabis in order for producers to maintain their income. In the mean time: continuous streams of soil and fertilizers arrive on semi-trucks to feed the ever hungry commercial industry, bulldozers level flats for massive greenhouses, diesel trucks rumble up remote backcountry roads to supply off-grid indoor grows, radio ads dominate the airwaves promoting the latest snake oil remedy for bigger buds and larger harvests, and small town streets are lined with migrant workers looking for seasonal jobs. Like the Gold Rush days of the past… and many of us can feel the uncertainty of changing times.

The Boom-Bust Phenomenon

Northern California has a history of environmental exploitation and its rich natural resources have seduced profit seekers for almost two, fast-paced centuries now. Tales of high mountain streams full of gold, endless forests, and rivers pulsing with abundant salmon runs once spread across the globe and brought with it the hopes of a better life to the newly arrived inhabitants of this region. Their stories are those of people who created cultures and economies that relied upon the depletion of the resource base for which they ultimately depended on; clean water, top-soil, biodiversity, intact forests and natural beauty. The stories are of economic booms followed by ecological busts.  (read more below)

In a 1991 report, titled “California’s Salmon and Steelhead: The Struggle to Restore an Imperiled Resource,” Scott Downie writes: “But the fragile timberlands proved to be quite finite. In town after town, during the sixties and seventies, mills and businesses failed; populations, like the timber base itself, disappeared. The denuded watersheds, roaded and gullied beyond belief, had meanwhile suffered catastrophic flood events in 1955 and 1964. Unprecedented levels of eroded topsoil and mass wasting had left many areas no longer suitable for growing profitable conifer forests. These lands in turn became subject to sale and subdivision, which fostered a new land development boom in several North Coast areas that still continues. Once again roads and associated drainage problems were predictable elements of the new settlers’ land use practices.”

Environmental and Social Impacts

At the heart of our region’s current economic boom is the cannabis industry, ranging in scale from small “medical” grows, to expansive industrial farms. Because of its illegal nature, marijuana production is more elusive than past industrial practices (logging and fishing) but its ecological repercussions are becoming more apparent. In recent years, North Coast citizens and government agencies have attempted to quantify the environmental impacts of commercial cannabis production. Of that coverage, most of the national media attention has gone to illegal growing operations on state and federal park lands. Law enforcement has reported that large scale plantations numbering in tens of thousands of plants have resulted in: illegal water diversions, illegal clearing of forest canopy, use of pesticides and rodenticides, killing of wildlife, potential run-off from chemical fertilizers, and large amounts of refuse being left at grow sites. The public has been advised to stay away from these remote areas for their own safety.