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CategoriesRecent EntriesCatch shares: A nation dividedSupporting cast growingGetting ready for the rallyWhat's next for Maine's shrimpers?"That conversation is going to have to happen"California cannabis cultivation compromising cohos? No accounting for fund mismanagementAt least put a label on itWhetting your app-etite for Copper River salmonCod cuts illustrate need for March 21 fishermen's rallyRecent CommentsMike Dolan on NOAA is all apologiesBrian on Introducing the iLobsterBen on Introducing the iLobsterBeringFisherman on Groundfish catch shares going bi-coastal Dick Allen on Jane, doh!National Fisherman on Jane, doh!Wreckfish on Jane, doh!Sierra Anderson on Facing factsken grimshaw on Tough loveJessica on Recovery in a snapArchivesMarch 2012February 2012January 2012December 2011November 2011October 2011September 2011August 2011July 2011June 2011« No accounting for fund mismanagement |Main| "That conversation is going to have to happen" »February 24, 2012California cannabis cultivation compromising cohos? Given all the obstacles to rebuilding West Coast salmon stocks, I’d wager you didn’t know marijuana was one of them.
To clarify, it’s not as if salmon have become stoners with a bad case of the munchies who now swim upstream in a desperate search for a bag of Doritos.
Rather, according to a story in the Eureka (Calif.) Times Record, the conservation group Friends of the Eel River says marijuana cultivation is having a negative impact upon coho salmon and the watershed. It was the topic of a presentation the group’s executive director, Scott Greacen, was giving at California’s 39th Annual Fisheries Forum in Sacramento on Wednesday.
The daylong forum enables those involved in California fisheries and aquaculture to directly address the state legislature about issues important to them.
Greacen was to discuss the negative impacts marijuana cultivation is having upon California’s third largest salmon producing river. The group says poorly planned outdoor growing operations are resulting in problems stemming from over-use of fertilizers and pesticides that are toxic to fish, growers taking river water for their operations, and poor land-use practices that result in sediment slipping into the rivers.
Surprised that pot growing is discussed so casually in the Golden State? Well, under California law, individuals can grow a limited amount of marijuana for personal and medicinal purposes. Amid conflicting county, state, and federal laws regarding marijuana growth (federal law prohibits it), through the years, growing operations have mushroomed in Northern California, and become big business.
Greacen told the newspaper that Northern California officials had been successfully regulating growing operations. But when the federal government started cracking down on marijuana dispensaries, growers slipped into the shadows.
Consequently, growing practices aren’t eco- or fish-friendly and subject coho salmon that spawn and live in the river to pollution. Greacen told the newspaper that he hopes California legislators will understand the need for cooperation, transparency and regulation that enable cohos to co-exist with marijuana growers.
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