Date: September 18, 2009
Contact: John Dell'Osso, 415-464-5135
This week, National Park Service Rangers from Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, and California Fish and Game entered a marijuana grow site and confiscated over 200 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $900,000. The site is located along Bolinas Ridge in western Marin County.
Earlier this year, over 2,600 plants were removed and in 2006, approximately 44,000 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $176 million dollars were removed from Point Reyes National Seashore, Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Marin Municipal Water District lands. Other National Park Service sites in California have also removed large areas of marijuana including Yosemite National Park, Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks, Redwood National and State Parks, and Whiskeytown National Recreation Area.
"Park rangers and other agency personnel have been working diligently to reduce drug activity on public lands. We want to make sure park visitors are safe and park resources are protected," stated Don Neubacher, Superintendent at Point Reyes National Seashore.
The areas under cultivation suffer extensive resource damage from the growing operations. Preliminary estimates show a number of trees were damaged to make the site. Additionally, a large water holding pond was dug into the hillside to bring water into the site. Growers are killing wildlife, diverting streams that contain threatened species of fish, using harmful pesticides and bringing the presence of violence to these natural areas.
-NPS-
