A few days ago, there was a story in my local news about a grow-house bust up in the hills above my town. Cartels were likely involved, because a cache of 33 automatic weapons were recovered. Pictures of the grow-house were posted: slightly amateurish greenhouses draped with untidy shiny black plastic.
My local nextdoor community were gossiping about this, and wondering about the exact location. I’ve used Google satellite view before to check out the enormous quantity of grow-houses in Mendicino County. If you look in the forests just west of Garberville and Laytonville, you will see hundreds of clearings in the redwood forests. If you zoom in, each one with have a shiny-topped grow-house or houses. Some are prosperous and organized, and I believe they are the legitimate ones who sell to dispensaries. Some are ragtag and scrappy-looking, and I bet those are the illegal ones.
So I used Google satellite view to look through the hills up above my town in the area indicated by the news reports. There was only one ranch that had a shiny-topped grow-house. The operation was concealed from the road by trees. There was a medium-sized dirt parking lot with a dozen cars parked in it. If you looked at the news pictures on the ground of the grow-house, it matched up with what you could see from space.
I posted to nextdoor and linked the Google satellite view. Most people agreed with me that that was the place. But a person who lives on that very road posted to vehemently disagree. He claimed that the bust took place at a very different place and named it. I looked at the different place on Google satellite view, and it had no evidence of a grow-house or parked cars or anything suspicious.
I was about to rebut, but decided that this guy might be in cahoots with whatever cartel was running the busted place. You have to use your own name at nextdoor, and he could Google me up in a second. I Googled up his name and see that he’s practically the next ranch over from the busted place. So I didn’t post back at all after posting the link.
Although you did nothing wrong, my gut tells me that you poked your nose someplace you probably shouldn’t have. Some grow operations are just regular people trying to make a few bucks, while others are associated with powerful drug cartels. Unless it’s happening on your street, or otherwise impacting you directly, I would stay out of it and let law enforcement handle it. Nobody likes a snitch.
I had San Diego friends and relatives who, in the 70’s and 80’s, also owned land in the renowned Emerald Triangle. They were all on a shoestring budget, so – rather than hire people – they’d camp on the property during the grow … armed to the freakin’ teeth … and babysit their crops.
It’s always been a game that was played for keeps. I guess – not surprisingly – legalization hasn’t changed that aspect much.
Love, love, LOVE Humboldt County (the place, not necessarily the weed), though
Except for the people who regularly appear on the news broadcasts with tears in their eyes begging for someone to come forward and tell what they know - so they might have closure of a family tragedy.
Yep, I’m staying out of it. Folks were asking each other the exact location of the place and I, a true Doper, I wanted to show how clever I was. Never occurred to me I’d be raising anyone’s hackles.
You are supposed to, and you can be booted out (I guess) if your fakery is discovered by someone in authority there, but I’ve never seen evidence that they enforce it at all.
Something like this could be detrimental to the health of innocent hikers. And how many of those forest “clearings” are good for the environment?
Pot growing likely is nowhere near as environmentally consequential as running a meth lab, but in neither case are the parties involved likely to be good stewards of the land.
You said it. Here’s an area just west of Redway. The forest is just dotted with little clearings. Zoom in on just about any of the little pale dots and you’ll see a greenhouse, surrounded and concealed by forest.
