DNR Law Enforcement Officer Allan Gallanger’s back and legs are sore this weekend after trudging up and down steep hills the last few days. And he’ll have more days in the hot sun ahead as he and other law enforcement authorities across Washington State continue to find illegal plantings of marijuana on state, federal and private forestland.
On Wednesday, Gallanger helped remove about 4,500 plants someone was growing in Loomis State Forest. The next day he was out helping Okanogan County authorities remove a few thousand plants from private forestland. This comes on top of about 12,000 plants confiscated from DNR-managed lands in the agency’s Southeast Region. And that’s only a snapshot from a few days.
Many times, authorities are alerted to the illegal grows by people hunting and fishing. Marijuana growers can be especially hard on the local habitat by dousing their crops with strong herbicides and fertilizers. Gallanger says the presence of plastic hoses or PVC pipes placed in streams to divert water could be a local home owner’s water supply, or the sign of a nearby marijuana growing operation. Some growers divert entire streams by building improvised dams and digging trenches. And then all that herbicide and fertilizer washes back into streams when it rains: not good for local fish, wildlife or native plant species.
DNR officers continue to work with local and federal task forces to confiscate marijuana crops and try to stop the environmental damage being caused to public trust lands.
If you are out hunting, fishing or back country trekking, take a hint from the 1980’s TV cop show Hill Street Blues, where the sergeant ended daily briefings by saying, “Let’s be careful out there, people!”
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