Ventana Wilderness Alliance

*UPDATE-FALL 2010*

The Forest Service has cancelled volunteer participation in the cleanup of illegal marijuana grow sites across California.  This change in Forest Service policy appears to be based on the continued proliferation of these sites and Forest Service liability concerns due to the presence of commercial fertilizers, pesticides and other noxious chemicals on these sites.  The VWA will track this situation and reinstate grow site cleanup projects if and when we get Forest Service clearance to do so.

In the meantime, the VWA is still very active in all other areas of public land stewardship in the Ventana Region, including our Trail Crew and Youth in Wilderness Program.  Please contact our Trail Crew Chief, David Knapp ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or Morgan Harris, Youth in Wilderness Program Assistant ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) for more information and opportunities to participate in these programs.

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Marijuana cultivation on California’s public lands by illicit commercial growers is an unintended consequence of the United States’ drug policy and increased border security following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. These commercial grow sites and the environmental degradation they cause is an increasing problem in the Ventana Region. When law enforcement personnel eradicate these sites, their responsibility is to remove the contraband marijuana plants. Typically left on site is all of the trash generated by months of occupancy by the growers including foodstuffs, camping gear, irrigation tubing, garden tools, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides and rat poison.

Forest Service law enforcement personnel and recreational back country visitors have reported dozens, if not scores, of such sites in remote corners the Ventana Region with continued grower activity each year. To address the environmental problem of the trash and agricultural chemicals abandoned on these sites, the VWA has developed a program to clean up and restore these sites. All projects are done in partnership with the Forest Service. The work generally entails a cleanup crew hiking into a particular site, bagging the trash and bundling the irrigation tubing to be hauled back to a trailhead on cargo backpacks. Forest Service pack stock is used when possible. This work is similar to restoration work the VWA completed in the Willow Creek drainage in 2004.

If you would like to volunteer to work with the VWA to clean up these grow sites, please provide your contact information in the box at right, and then submit your information. You will be notified of upcoming projects by email.