California State Park System has removed tens of thousands of illegal marijuana plants and dismantled dozens of grow sites this year.
As of 2024, law enforcement officers cleared 25,558 marijuana plants from the state park system, seized 4,820 pounds of processed marijuana, along with 18 guns, and arrested 7 suspects.
In the largest park in California – Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, authorities removed 4,672 marijuana plants and cleaned up 500 pounds of waste and 1,000 feet of irrigation pipe.
This is part of the State Park’s “Cannabis Watershed Protection Project” (CWPP). The CWPP team is composed of law enforcement, resource management personnel, maintenance workers, and other technical experts. State Park Director Armando Quintero stated in a release, “Illegal marijuana cultivation poses a serious threat to California’s unparalleled natural resources, and we will continue to search for and eradicate cultivation sites both inside and outside state parks.”
Established in 2019, CWPP is funded by cannabis tax funds. The project’s job is to identify and clear illegal marijuana cultivation sites on its properties or nearby and to clean up trash and hazardous materials. This year, the project deployed a “Special Enforcement Team” for 16 enforcement actions within or nearby state parks. The team also put a stop to water theft activities and cleaned up waste and other sources of pollution during the operations.
Officials have reported over 400 illegal marijuana cultivation sites within California State Parks.
The Special Enforcement Team and CWPP also rehabilitated 23 historic cultivation sites within the State Park’s jurisdiction, clearing approximately 16,000 pounds of waste, including 33,000 feet of plastic irrigation pipe and over 600 pounds of fertilizers.
The park mentioned in a press release, “The environmental impact of these illegal cultivation activities could be devastating, such as polluting waterways and altering local ecosystems, and rehabilitation is the first step in addressing their landscape impact.”
Statewide, law enforcement agencies have seized 774,829 illegal marijuana plants and 106,141 pounds of processed marijuana this year. The underground market value of this marijuana is estimated at 3.53 billion US dollars.
San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus stated in a release, “California’s marijuana enforcement still has a long way to go to ensure that illegal marijuana does not enter the legal market.”
The State Park’s Special Enforcement Team collaborates with the state Department of Justice’s Eradication and Prevention of Illicit Cannabis program, as well as Governor Newsom’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force, to combat illegal marijuana cultivation within the largest state park system in the United States. The park system covers 280 parks, totaling 1.59 million acres.
This year, the State Park’s Special Enforcement Team conducted enforcement actions in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Clear Lake State Park, Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, Lake Oroville State Recreation Area, Onyx Ranch State Vehicle Recreation Area, Saddleback Butte State Park, and Smithe Redwoods State Natural Reserve or nearby areas.