As the Push for Federal Legalization of Marijuana Gathers Momentum, Congressman Jared Huffman Visits Humboldt Cannabis Farm
According to a 2014 article, Huffman said our district produces 60% of the marijuana produced in America so a national policy change could have a dramatic effect on the area.
The Marijuana Justice Act, which among other reforms proposed, would end the federal criminalization of cannabis by pulling it from the US Controlled Substances Act has gathered a good deal of support in the last few months. This would clear some of the hurdles out of the way that prohibit interstate commerce of cannabis. Several high profile lawmakers, including four potential presidential candidates, California Senator Kamala Harris, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker are all sponsors of the bill.
In April, top Democrat Chuck Schumer announced that he was introducing separate legislation to decriminalize marijuana and John A. Boehner, the former Republican speaker of the House announced that his “thinking on cannabis has evolved” and he’s joining the board of a cannabis corporation.
In addition, Canada will vote on a bill to legalize recreational cannabis on June 7 and, according to the most recent Pew Research Center Survey, 61% of Americans support legalization.
When Huffman toured the Humboldt Sky farm located near Garberville, he listened to the concerns of around twenty farmers and business owners but made it clear that he could do little to affect state policy as he was a federal congressman.
Nonetheless, there were several concerns in which he seemed particularly interested. One issue brought up by landowner Robert May noted that the mold and fungus standards for cannabis were much higher than that for other agricultural products including tobacco.
“They’re so strict that we can’t recycle bags used to hold cannabis,” May explained. “We have to throw them all away after one use. [With the new standards,] we’ve gone from being very concerned with recycling to throwing away many, many bags…They are mandating pollution.”
Another environmental concern May brought to the Congressman’s attention was how much power marijuana grown indoors uses compared to that grown outdoors or in solar-powered greenhouses. According to the Seattle Times,
[Indoor] pot production often uses hospital-intensity lamps, air conditioning, dehumidifiers, fans and carbon-dioxide generators to stimulate plants and boost their potency…The power-hungry crops rival data centers or server farms in intense use of electricity, according to a peer-reviewed study last year in the journal Energy Policy. One kilo, or 2.2 pounds, of pot grown indoors, the study says, leaves a carbon footprint equivalent to driving across the country seven times. Producing one joint is equivalent to leaving a light bulb on for 25 hours.
When a similar statistic was recounted to the Congressman who recently introduced a bill to protect solar jobs, he exclaimed, “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Another issue that caught Huffman’s attention was brought up by Barry Nachshon, the CEO of True Humboldt, a brand that represents sun-grown cannabis farmers. He explained that anyone transporting anything commercially requires a dual state and federal permit. And, since the federal government currently treats cannabis as a crime, Nachshon said, “The whole state is transporting illegally.” (See more about this here.)
“That isn’t sane,” Huffman said. “This is something I can take to my colleagues and see if there can’t be some fix.”
As with most gatherings in Southern Humboldt this year, the decreasing income for brick and mortar storefronts was discussed. A former business owner brought up that falling marijuana prices and the increasing expenses of growers struggling to meet legal permit requirements had cut the gross take on his previous business by 40% in six months. He pointed out that sales tax income was going to drop precipitously in Humboldt County. Another business owner pointed out that this, in turn, would cut money to fix roads as well as cut support for fire and law enforcement.
Robert May, the landowner, pointed out during the Congressman’s visit that the regulations in the county were allowing other areas of the state to shoot ahead of the one-time cannabis leader. “Humboldt County is getting its clock cleaned,” he said. “Much of the regulations are good, environmentally sound. But hard to do all at once.”
Nonetheless, he was still hopeful. He pointed out that the County was built on the nimbleness of small entrepreneurs. “The hoop house was invented in Humboldt,” he explained nodding to the greenhouse that allowed his brand to bring in two harvests a year.
“We cover [the hoop houses] with tarps, force them to flower early and we get in two harvests before full term,” explained Adam Rollins, the cultivator for Humboldt Sky. He said that if they used large amounts of electricity, they could get even more harvests but that this way they kept their costs down and their environmentally friendly standards up.
As the Congressman was leaving, Huffman stated that some of the problems faced by cannabis farmers were “inherent with small businesses but some are unique to this business.”
He acknowledged that the recent change to recreational cannabis was bumpy but he urged the farmers to “stay the course and persevere because I don’t think we are going back to prohibition.” He pointed out that although in many ways big cannabuisness has the edge, he still thinks that “there is room for the little guys that are a little more risk-friendly.”
He recommended working with more traditional businesses like ranches and forest owners who have similar issues. He said that working together, there might be state money in the form of grants to clean up environmental issues. “I don’t know why you wouldn’t have the same access as wine grape growers,” he said. “You can’t go it alone on these kinds of issues.”
With national and even international governments looking to possibly relax the rules around cannabis, hopefully, Huffman can gather enough information to help Humboldt during what could be another bumpy transition.
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Very glad to see the issue of environmental and economic costs of totally indoor, artificially maintained lights and other equpment emphasized. Yeah, a sturdy greenhouse cover for rain and hail is fine and two crops a season and occasional heater backup for record cold might be OK, but indoor growing on a large industrial scale is problematic and costly if your pulling heavy wattage off the grid trying to imitate the sun. It’s not “green” but onsite solar is. The ideally maintained, high input, indoor environment also is ideal for pests and diseases that are minimal or non-existent outdoors.
Pesticide use outdoors is zero to minimal. Pack rats, for example, can be targeted with non-toxic, critter specific traps with whole peanuts, etc. I have mentioned these strategies before and would discuss them with others who may have low-impact farming strategies of their own.
Glad to see Rep. Huffman in the district and taking care of business.
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He has to drain his pond? Fish and wildlife want growers to forbear using water in summer months, but now they want growers to drain ponds? They need to be sued for farmer discrimination
To kill bullfrogs
He’ll Yeah! Draining healthy ponds makes any property less supportive of downstream.
Dep of fish n wildlife yet a dried pond helps neither have fish or a drink for wildlife in an extremely partched summer months and excessive rainy season which seems absolutely asinine to not take advantage of a pond, in fact there should be an incentive for doing so. Not to mention what kind of farm doesn’t self supply its own water let alone the land owners right to have one…more big government over reach always limiting instead of inabling. The mismanagement is about as stupid as taking these hogs off the nuisance list in an agricultural state, these things do major damage.
Our local power plant is natural gas and very clean. Plus redwood energy allows for the purchase of carbon neutral power, for a small additional cost. Standard practices vs standard practice; indoor is more eco-friendly. Best practices vs best practices, indoor is more eco-friendly.
“The ideally maintained, high input, indoor environment also is ideal for pests and diseases that are minimal or non-existent outdoors.”
Absolutely untrue. In fact the opposite is true. Regulation of environmental conditions allows for better control of pests, and reduces the chances of introducing exotic pests to the ecosystem.
No noise pollution, no light pollution, no forest fragmentation, no run-off, Lower carbon footprint in transportation of materials, no pesticides introduced to the environment.
Indoor growing is in no way greener than outdoor growing or greenhouse. You are out of your mind. I have extensive experience with both and that is simply untrue.
Indoor growing of anything is unnecessary.
When we colonize Mars framing indoors might make sense.
You are absolutely 100 percent out of your mind kidding yourself if you think growing indoor is in any way more planet friendly than sun grown. Nice try.
You sound like you’ve never seen a sustainable farm cultivating in native soil using regenerative practices.
So, In order to corner a dying market, CA politicians want to streamline other states’ ability to flood markets even more? Politicians are pretty, but stupid.
Humboldt’s name is not going to save it. It will be a mere footnote in history soon.
I agree. Humboldt is know (to buyers) for cheap outdoor, not conasuir quality cannabis. THis issue of branding would have need to be addressed years ago, but we missed the boat.
Finally the drug war is over! All hail lord Huffman!
Humboldt County is most certainly known for connisuer grade cannabis.
Humboldt County will always be a major producer of marijuana. I live on the other side of the country and everybody has heard of Humboldt County weed. It’s legendary. When marijuana is legalized at the federal level Humboldt County will be bringing in money from all over the country and maybe even other countries.
The industry will change though. Prices will continue to drop. Many producers won’t make it. Growing operations will consolidate. Mostly only big farms will be able to make a profit and they will have to produce huge quantities to do so. That’s just the way of the world.
Marijuana is an agricultural commodity. There was never a good reason for it to cost thousands a pound other than its legal status. Competition and inevitable market efficiency will drive prices through the floor. Only big operations will make it and a few smaller ones that do a fantastic job branding their product and selling it as something really special for discerning connoisseurs with more money than sense. Those who adapt will make it. Most won’t. That’s the way things work. You can’t stop it. You can only adapt or find a new way to make a living. Legalization is coming everywhere.
At least you don’t live in Colorado where it’s all snowy mountains or desert. Their gravy train will dry up as other states legalize and good farming areas are able to produce at a tiny fraction of what it costs to grow in Colorado.
If you were from here you would know that steep land is common, it doesn’t rain from June through September, the wetter areas have fog all summer, much of the ground is unstable and access to urban areas is 3 to 6 hours away when the roads are all open. And most of those roads are 2 lane twisters.
Just about everywhere else can grow more competitively. I doubt if nostalgia for Humboldt grown pot will allow more than a few specialists to be economically feasible. And Humboldt is not a copy right name.
It appears to me that the Cannabis-Artisans, while possessing incredible skill and knowledge, still insist upon growing a useless crop in an unfriendly environment and in an unsustainable manner.
Persons who grow flowers in potting soil, they are florists!
I hope growers eventually move down to actual farmland, and learn to grow in a less energy-dependent manner, and that consumers will accept a more pedestrian product.
Standardization will make weed more tobacco-like, but wasting money on getting high, and demanding weed that will paralyze a common user, these are poor goals.
A useless crop in an unfriendly environment? Lol. You’re out of your mind. I bet you can’t name a crop that has more uses than cannabis because there isn’t one. And after so many years of producing the best cannabis in the world how could you call the environment unfriendly? Obviously don’t know what you’re talking about. So let me clue you in. They like a little higher elevation. The farmland on the coast is too humid and leads to rot (as summers are most other places in the country). The heat in the Central Valley produces an inferior product. Not to mention the pesticide drift makes it test dirty because the food you currently eat has way lower standards than the cannabis we grow. Also the water rights are very competitive and very spoken for. Those farmers are subsidized by the feds to grow food and that’s how water rights are divvied. Think those farmers are gonna give up their federal subsidies to enter a saturated market? Think again.
They will be successful enough to shut down those growing here. It already tends to be a product grown by those who made their money elsewhere and come here for the very rural world they destroy. Legalization will just increase the numbers and growing will become like wineries. A few mass commercial successes surround by rich wannabes.
There is nothing here that is not trucked in a elevated prices. When growers are actually competing, that becomes an important consideration. It is one reason why innovative business started out of Humboldt creativity and a need to earn a living to keep living in a beautiful area mostly move to other places when they reach a viable size. The viable size in Humboldt County is not very big.
The system was designed to fail….
Hemp is the what you mean. cannabis is man’s creation
Good one, but you couldn’t be more wrong! Ever heard of landrace cannabis?
Meanwhile I am surrounded by illegal grows, russian mobsters, thousand lb harvests, and out of the area staffing solutions are bringing in teams of trimmers from who knows where to work on the rare legal farm. My neighborhood is gone, it is a cannabis enterprise zone now.
I have friends in Hawaii that say “my neighborhood is gone” and what they mean is their neighborhood is gone. You say “my neighborhood is gone” and what you mean is you live around people growing an herb that has been proven to help heal hundreds of conditions from epilepsy to cancer. Big difference
Not a real comparison at all. Your Hawaii friends might have parroted the people here if they allowed growing right next to them. There are many ways to lose paradise. Hog farms and pot grows as neighbors are in that list.
When ones neighborhood becomes a illegal commercial grow the neighborhood is lost. I am really sick of our politicians bending over backwards for a large population of gangsters. WTF!! My neighborhood is gone. Empty houses, retired working class gone or selling, strangers driving in and out all day transporting coke, etc.. When we have a natural disaster we are fucked!
Yeah Huffman making it all better for those who do not give a shit about anything but their profit margins. Legalization trumps civility, morality, a consciousness. How about my rights to enjoy my home a place I have lived for years!!! My wildlife slaughtered, poisoned, murdered in the name of Cannabis. The burden on me to pursue legal remedies!! How about the laws that protect my rights? I know your home is Not surrounded or submersed in this misery. Nor do you worry about your safety. How about your community I beat it is full of opportunities and busting at the seams with festive activities. A diverse economy with a mentally healthy population of people. People with stable jobs and who are very optimistic.
After reading all the comments of this thread spend some time reading other threads of this blog. Think about the rest of the sane population outside of this area who do not want come here. Who have heard the horror stories and who are your constituents. Your decisions do not reflect most educated ethically minded people.
And for the record, making Cannabis Federally legal screws the Mom &Pops, small farmers and gives power to mega corporations waiting patiently on the sidelines to take ultimate control of the industry.
Sounds like you got gentrified, but with a twist, if your the odd one out I bet your neighbors don’t like you much either. If your so butt-hurt about your “neighborhood,” then you are free to move..
I suppose…but that’s roughly on the same side of history as white civilization sneering at Native Americans. It has a certain Calvinistic tone, too. So I guess you aren’t alone in that thought.
But to my way of thinking to sneer at someone complaining because their whole way of life is being impacted is pretty harsh.
Robert May makes some good points to the Congressman. But ask his closest neighbors below Dyerville Loop Rd. how happy they have been with his checkered history as an absentee grower….
I think I heard him talking to them at the event. You might reach out to them again and see what they have to say now.
Oh gee, is Robert going to have to drain the ponds he kept filled with spring water that was supposed to go to parcels below him? He’s done this for decades.
Roberts bad reputation is legendary in that area .
Feeding the naive huff more baloney as he panders for votes
He’s been filling his ponds with water that is supposed to go to parcels below him. Been doing it for decades. His bad reputation is legendary in that area.
Now he’s a “legit” grower ?!?!?
All he had to do was be a shitty neighbor, prove he has been breaking the law with illegal cultivation, pay a small amount of money and boom, you’re now a legit grower. Gotta love how Humboldt handles legalization.
I was surrounded on 3 sides with clear cuts in 3 acre exemption clear cuts last year. Now one parcel over, the 4th side is going too. It’s too late to fix. My place is an island of green in a sea of slash, exposed dirt and money, money,money. One good wind storm will topple and top my trees. Some birds have disappeared,different ones come in. The pileated woodpeckers have not been seen for the first year. It’s too early to see if the banded pigeons will show up. Surprisingly the raccoons have disappeared along with the skunks but I’m sure they will return once the mechanical disturbances are over. Since crows have multiplied and are nesting at my place now, I suppose because it is now a magical place for them- nesting trees surrounded by open areas for foraging, the Douglas squirrels are gone. It’s surprising how little animal noises there are now. Except for the caw caw caw of crows. The trillium have flowered in the slash areas then suddenly disappeared with too much sun before seeding. The Kellogg lilies started to come on as normal were all virtually mowed down by deer. No seeding for them either. Something will sooner or later fill in the new exposed areas but the masses of salal and huckleberry are gone. Whatever fed on them will be going elsewhere too.
And for what? A few, very few, people making lots of money until it dries up. Whatever is pot that makes it so much more important than everything else?
I am so sorry you are dealing with this. We have one neighbor like this. He doesn’t care about the land or the creek. He’s already brought up a water truck. He couldn’t even store enough water to get through the first week in June on almost normal rain year. It hurts just to watch his destruction. For you, it must be so much worse.
I live next to a legal grow . Legal implying they do things right but that is far from the truth. Mendocino County enforcement of legal grows other than a
one day quick inspection is non existent. Single use crap all over the place. Piles of unused dirt now covered with weeds. Fencing fencing and more fencing, altering access by wildlife. Wasting electricity, wasting water. Increased traffic . Road destruction and they have not put one shovelful of gravel in a hole, in many years. Noise pollution from 24 hr a day fans. Livestock without even the most basic care, such as fresh water. Greedy, disrespectful out of the area owner who doesn’t participate or support the community. Hasn’t even paid property taxes in multiple years but yet is issued permits. How does that work???? Yet advertises themselves as sustainable, caring for the land, coming of age in the culture. The blah blah blah is infuriating. At least back in the day the illegal growers knew not to piss off neighbors these new legal guys feel free to be ugly.
I’ve seen similar problems. And I’m frustrated.
Yes I have seen similar stuff. It was obvious to those of us who read the fine print in that fake “legalization” proposition. But others wanted to read only the parts of the proposition that made them feel good and then announce to everybody how wonderful and free and safe everything would be! No. It’s the worst. And it is going to get worse….
If you want to see an absolute fencing eyesore nightmare, there’s a place right on Alderpoint Rd a couple of miles past the town of Blocksburg. Aluminum panels stacked three high all along the road and cross-crossing the property. Ruined a beautiful piece of property. I can’t believe this shit is approved by the county.
I’ve seen the Alexandrea walking dead property fence your talking about since they put it up I wondered if that was legal or not I can’t believe that is permitable it is the ugliest thing on that section of road looks like absolute crap.
Here in Mendo, land which is 5 years in arrears on property taxes is sold at auction on the court-house steps. “Dirt” cheap to recover the tax money, only. Check the County-paid classifieds in the local newspapers.
Why don’t you let the people who are responsible for stopping this kind of bad practice know ,so the thing that you’re complaining about your neighbor will stop ?
The regs are also clear that you cannot haul water and deliver it to thirsty cannabis plants.
Regarding cultivation, People love to complain about things they see and know about, that are really bad practices, but they will do nothing to help stop the bad practice, they just keep complaining as if that’s going to do anything.
You seem to be assuming that I haven’t reported it?
The neighborhood all signed a complaint. Went to the people at the county with pictures and complaints. Went to BOS meetings, Next to nothing was done. The grower bragged he paid people off. After all that it appears it was true. Mendocino county does not have enforcement for their ordinance.
And let them snitching begin
How would any of you who have made dollars from weed illegally like it? Cuz now you’re doing it. And paying cops to cut down plants.
Is it snitching or protecting the environment when you report that Enron had an oil spill?
Is it snitching or protecting the environment when you report that the neighbor up the road leaves “Livestock without even the most basic care, such as fresh water?”
If you really want a scare, go on satelite view on google maps and surf the area looking at logging clear cuts. They outsize and outnumber weed grows well over ten to one, every year, year after year. The mountains are a sloppy checkerboard fir plantation, it’s like a wasteland of kindling. Some gigantic square mile clearcuts by Redding. Truely scary.
As usual, the idea that someone else is a bigger problem does not excuse other problems however many times pot people trot that dog out. Beside, it would not be so bad if the grow clear cuts were followed by replanting, inspection for compliance and a scheduled rest and regrowth periods. But once logged to the ground, those less than 3 acre grow sites never are allowed to come back. Even the suffering stumps are beaten down. Only worse comes.
I hear you guest but druthers is right. The marijuana watershed issues are just the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Large industrial logging destroyed our hills and rivers. You can still watch the silt run into the Eel from old MAXXAM/PL cuts. The Eel has water but its all running underground through the 40 plus feet of silt.
If you haven’t been out to a clearcut I highly recommend it. I have yet to see a pot grow even at its worse that rivals a clearcut in long term destruction.
And fyi everyone the logging isn’t stopping! Endangered species, waterways and land are threatened RIGHT NOW on Rainbow Ridge in the Mattole. Absolutely amazing area.
If anyone hasn’t read about the fights had to try to protect our environment here then please do. A young man was killed, local 16 year olds had pepper spray put in their eyes with q-tips while protesting. The sheriff’s were no better than the pinkertons, private police to big industry. For that matter look up how many people died near eureka trying to secure workers rights back in the early 1900’s.
We need to hold CDF to task on logging and the mass 3 acre conversions. Theyre not all for pot. 4 of my 5 neighbors did it to get the last of the redwood on their property as its at its highest price cuz its almost gone. Yes it regenerates but its a fragile ecosystem that needs mixed age, & no ones growing old growth. The plants and animals do not regenerate very well, & all are tied together to create a healthy forest.
Jesus was alive when those old trees were growing. It takes a long time.
If we are not going to stand for pot farmers breaking rules and then just paying the fines (like MAXXAM did for years) then we need to hold logging and CDF to the same standards!!!!
& if you care about water in the Eel, now’s the time to voice your opinion about the biggest water theft we have: Potter Valley/Scott Dam that takes 80% of the Eel river water and feeds it to the Russian River and grape farmers. WTF?!?!? Lets occupy that dam and refuse to leave until the water goes back to its rightful place!
How can you bitch about pot growers when the water is literally being stolen by big ag???? That’s an issue Jared Huffman can do something about!!!
That’s what they want, for us to blame each other while they laugh their way to the bank. Divide and conquer no more! Lets rise up and take on the real issues facing our watersheds!!
If only they would have listened back 30 years ago, if logging was regulated like pot is now we’d have amazing rivers, forests, fish and farms.
Logging is so restricted.. you almost can even log.. The time and money that goes into establishing a legal THP is unbelievable…I’d say as someone who is involved in logging and my family has been logging from Santa Cruz to Seattle since the late 1800’s… loggers are more than regulated… we’ve spent much needed time to for research and land impact reports to confirm and ensure or regulations are effective..
Today’s battles are the only ones that can be won. Refighting endlessly long gone ones with hindsight are only bought to avoid fighting the current ones. “If They only had done such and such, there would be no problems now.” Maybe or not but good luck with that time travel theory of fixing anything.
I live in an area of redwoods logged off at least 3 times. Yet it grew back. Maybe not the old giants but enough to have plenty of wildlife moving through it. However I can guarantee, barring a great social disaster, every less-than-3-acre-exeption clear cut will not be allowed to grow back. Even if the owners stop growing pot, the land is now going to be lawn, ornamental and pet friendly suburbia. Just like the spreading rings of development in any town. All the smaller properties with houses will never have their patches of connecting woods again. The larger parcels will have their exemption followed by larger clear cuts. Because, unlike commercial timber companies, no one regulating it looks to the land as a continuous forest anymore once it is in seperated, individual pieces. Their owners don’t look to a future where another logging takes place in 20-30 years but clearing the plots for pot grows and never letting it grow back.
So much for delusional pot grower ecological warrior nonsense. That is a fairy tale. Fifty years from now, another generation of rear facing warriors will be complaining about how you all should have been stopped too.
The laws for cleanup are stricter for conversions than thp’s. There is a clear cut on my road that -while it opened up a great view- it was never replanted and the slash is left in piles still after 8 years. I asked my forester and he told me they don’t have to burn or restock if trees start to regrow. It’s just turning into a thicket of tanoak.. while a 3acre conversion must be completely cleaned up with in one year (all slash treated and wood moved off site)
But yes a 3 acre conversion is considered permanent (converted to agricultural uses) and not supposed to be restocked.
When we logged we made sure their wasn’t anything we had to spray… no need for spraying the hill side. And our forester informed us that all slash piles had to be burned with in a year… cleaned up and maintained roads… rocked and waterbars/ rolling dips.
Yes let’s not forget the logging people. The number one problem I. Humboldt County.
Our neighbors were Barnum, they clear-cutted back in the mid-90s, totally decimated the land then came in and sprayed 24d every were. Everybody on the hill was pissed off. but you know what, 25 years later you can’t even tell, it’ll grow back.
It’s great the land recovers but, roughly a third of a human’s lifespan seems a long time to have to live near a piece of land that was badly damaged.
If the land was badly damaged get a better logger… not some hack
Like pot growers replant trees or even allow them to grow back naturally?
Yes many do.
Who do you think started the groups doing restoration on forests and waterways??? Up until ten years ago most growers did smaller gardens with food growing too, &organic practices. They put their earnings back into the community on every level including forest and fish health.
Logged land grows back but its not the same forest without serious money and management.
Land covered with blackberries and invasive trees is not a native forest. Maybe you live near a holding that has a manager who oversees restoration forestry & creek rehab. Thats some expensive stuff requiring lots of grants.
Sorry to say but if Barnum sprayed near your water source your family is getting poisoned, it takes way longer for that stuff to go away especially since it was applied with diesel fuel.
In Rio Dell the cancers starting showing in the thyroid of teen girls. It was found that most of the girls had gone to tanning beds and thats what is assumed to have combined with the poisons in the water to create cancer, just fyi.
Not sure what wonderful planet you are from. Pot growers have never given more than a token amount to restoration in Humboldt. Nor was it growers who started the local restoration groups. I was a founder of more than one restoration group, and that was way before Humboldt was awash in illegal money. Pot growers never had time to devote to anything but growing pot and taking winter vacations. Sure, there were and are exceptions, but they are rare, and never donated more than 1% of a local non-profit’s budget. I recall local restoration groups and volunteer fire departments going on KMUD begging for community support, both physical and financial. NO calls came in. A local volunteer fire chief told me that the only time growers donated to his department was when they had a fire and the fire chief put pressure on them. Our Eel, the Mattole, and our forests would be in vastly better condition had the growers shared their wealth as your fantasy suggest. I wish it weren’t so.
As a fundraiser, I have to say growers provided the vast majority of the money we raised. I also spoke to a KMUD staff member who explained how awkward it was going to events for independent radio. The person said that it was a bit awkward trying to explain their relatively healthy bottom line without talking about marijuana growers.
As a reporter, I’ve talked to multiple non-profits in the area and somewhat reluctantly they all eventually admitted to large donations from growers.
In addition, I saw first-hand growers donating generously to environmental causes. I remember one grower describing how good it felt to donate money from their first harvest to support the startup of Trees. Certainly, not all growers are generous but to ignore the effect of cannabis money on the many non-profits here is to be unprepared for the crash as the cannabis economy struggles.
It’s only a struggle.cuz most growers making over 100000 grand a year are the ones bitching the most. Please. Most people int he world don’t make that much money in 4 years.
Believe it or not, most growers don’t make 100K+ a year either.
That reminds me of the many times robber barons, having reached a place of obscene wealth, start worrying about their legacies and turn into philanthropists. Well, if they had not run over society in their money making machines, there would be a lot less need for their arrogantly self directed charity .
I picture the best achievable world as one where most people are fairly industrious, respectful of neighbors and left with enough profit from their personal industry they can take care of their concerns without the false charity of meanly obtained and thereby tainted money.
It reminds me of small farmers seeing a need in their community and giving back.
With the amount that people have been growing yes they do. You.must not be in the scene . Ive only done 10 plants a year and that’s been beyond supplemental. So gimme a break
Most growers spend 30 large k. Fucking nutrients and dirt for one year. Who are you kidding? When a grower says they are sustainable they are full of shit, not matter how long their dreads.
If you cant tell, then you just have no idea what you are looking at.
I think they are still spraying some shit… there’s a huge patch of dead tanoaks on their land up three creeks road. Not great if you drink the water in that watershed.
Didn’t the people of Mendo vote in a law to get timber companies to stop spraying “trash trees” and leaving them standing dead?
Barnum is not in mendo. a recent cut on Redwood Creek looks as if some selective herbicide was applied which was probably not approved in THP but done anyway. its the northern most recent cut on their prop.
My point was that herbicide spraying is still common & that citizens of Mendo had taken action. Didn’t make that point very clearly though. Don’t know for sure what’s going on now but in the past 2-4D with diesel as surfactant has been used. I wouldn’t want to drink water polluted with either of those.
me either and its still being used everywhere there are hardwoods. it contaminates mainly surface water and springs. some tracts have 1,000s of gallons applied. if your well is deep, you are most likely Ok. if anyone wants to test for it, its only $150 at north coast labs. its best to be in the know when it comes to what you drink.
Dead tan oaks are probably from sudden oak death pathogen. I see large swathes of them dying on my property from it.
We legally logged our property a few short years ago…and have seen nothing but a massive regeneration in tree and plant growth. And we’ve noticed a huge increase in wildlife from beers, deers, turkey, quail, other bird species, most important bees and humming birds.. ect… Best part of all is the decrease in fire fuels… My opinion is if you are going to log or develope land for any purpose you should continuously maintain the land to counterbalance our presence and impact… take care of your roads and replant… protect water sheds
Seeing a huge increase of ‘beers’ on your property makes you one popular person! Where are you located?? Me and my friends can help you with some of them. lol.. 🙂
Haha.. sorry auto correct knows me!!! I’ll keep you in mind Livin’ Easy!…I meant bears…Smokey the Bear stopped by to visit when he got a nose full of what we’re burning on! I’m located everywhere there’s no BS and good times
What about all the thick regrowth? Are you going to thin? Otherwise you’ll have more fire danger than before you logged!
The future may call for minimal thinning. And goats are a great part of fire prevention..if you keep them moving daily they eat a lot of the under brush and tall grass..
I hear you, my heart breaks, the tribal counsel of the Hope a lot needs to be heard. The land healed me over time. So many blessings. Sleeping under the stars till the generators came. Now the whole valley is changed. I cherish the early days. Spotted owls come to visit. Two eagles dropped down under the oaks within feet of my head as I was yet again typing a please don’t do this to BLM. On my porch on my birthday. A beautiful gift. Dark valley big sky. Glorious stars.
I’m afraid that all of our ground water will be sucked dry! I assume that it takes billions of gallons of water to grow billions of plants. And if or when the drought is back,then what? But I guess not to worry.The experts have it figure out. The water trucks are running up and down the mountains and it’s barely June! Giant green houses going up like wild fire. Traffic on the mountain roads are insane! I believe the environmental impact will be great!
Get a bunch of tanks so that you can store winter water. It’s what carried me through the times the growers sucked the creek dry. It’s sort of a game of musical chairs where you try to fill your tanks in the spaces where they are not filling their tanks. As for the wildlife, they’d probably trying to drink out of puddles left between all playing that game. Used to be enough for all reasonable users but no one’s reasonable any more.
Call Huffman and demand our water back from Potter Valley!!!!
& get some rain catchment tanks, its incredibly easy to capture all the water you need very quickly. When we have major downpours for days, the water ends up in the ocean not in some catchment ponds or other non-dam style. Fill your tanks then.
How do you keep bird contamination from those tanks?
Is Huffman taking over where the county inspector left off, campaign contribution anyone, follow the money puffman , they might have a few dollars left but it’s going fast, as for state regulations making California cleaner, NOT, just another way to create jobs and fees
I suppose you mean government jobs. Huffman is one of those “leaders” who leads by placing himself visibly in front of where the herd was already going. I imagine he would even try integrity if that should miraculously become the fashion.
thanks, Kym!
Absolutely.
Federal legalization will cause prices to crash through the floor and wipe out the Humboldt cannabis industry.
That was the plan in the first place.
Very inportant to understand- When cannabis gets legalized federally it will then be subject to our international trade treaties. We can’t keep them out if we legalize federally! There will be a massive and eternal flood of cannabis from Canada, Mexico, Columbia and other countries. Federal legalization is the death to us! Don’t fool yourself. Dreamers and idiots please stop. It is no solution to the glut in CA and OR. Stop and think. Please!
I wonder if it will become a commodity where, like farmers, the wholesale prices are cheap but seller and the government sin tax keeps the prices high for consumers. That is one reason for the demise of small farms who can not grow enough to get volume needed to earn a livelihood. They resort to multiple land uses from tourism to corn mazes to keep going. Pot could be another alternative niche for them. Doing this is pretty labor intensive and I can’t see many of the current crop of pot growers going that way.
It’s too bad the growers have no consideration for the people that live near their grows. We purchased our home for our retirement but having to tell people to slow down when going by in their big fancy pickups or cars with out of state plates takes a lot of the enjoyment out of living in the country on a forest service road. We watched the big trucks delivering supplies to the growers and even they won’t slow down. There are children and animals in our residential neighborhood. Also in response to “YES”, those are not blackberries that are growing on clear cut land they are Himalayas and there is a big difference. We also watched the well drilling companies go up the hill to the grows, I wonder where the water is coming from!!
I’ve got a “Grower Commute” driving like bats out of hell past my place like clockwork every day. Down the road they come in the morning, out they go in the evening. Nobody made them have their grows 30 miles away from where they live, making them drive as fast as they can to get there and then to rush home at night. It’s insane. Trailer dragging is back, even when they have room for the load in their pickups. I guess the Bam crash clang crash bam racket that precedes them is a warning to get out of their way because guaranteed they will be in your lane. I hate to say it but growers, legal or not, are some of the most self centered don’t give a shit people here. Countless neighborhoods have been hijacked. Whose got the Russian/Bulgarian mafia for neighbors? EVERYBODY!! Organized crime right under the Sheriffs nose.
I am an old school grower I guess. Came here in late 70’s for the beauty and rural life. Grew a little for friends while working in the woods and ended up growing more for my main pay. I hate what has happened here! I do not like growers anymore!! It all went to shit when Gallegos gave them free reign to blow up south county, Willow Creek/Titlow and then out 36. Terrible parasites came to roost here. Locals went nuts. I know a few like me- kept it mellow and small, but not many. I hate weed growers because they suck and lie and take advantage and have ruined the place I love, killed the wildlife and the fish and I’d love to see CAMP return. But many of the greediest growers have gotten permits so…we are stuck with them while they congratulate each other on how awesome and wonderful and smart they are. Friggin’ parasites.
I hear you.
That’s because Gallegos was part of the grow on forest service 1.
Bulgarians and Russians everywhere you look.. When I was younger I remember hearing old timers tell stories of growing up in the 40’s during WW2. Once Pearl Harbor was attacked all Japanese families were rounded up and shipped out to the Nevada desert. How is it that the US has tension with Russia, and these scum bag mobsters can walk around freely destroying our land to illegally cultivate to support they’re illegal activities..
You aren’t seriously recommended rounding up another nationality again, are you? Japanese internment camps were a blight on our country’s history.
No… if I was recommending rounding people up and putting them into camps… I would have said that to begin with…and those old timers didn’t think camps were a good idea .. what they saw changed they’re lives.. after the war they all married Japanese woman… the people that were placed in camps didn’t deserve that treatment.. Being I’m Native American we still deal with the effects of REZ life and what was done to us.. I just wanna know what are we going to do about Bulgarians and Russians here in northern CA on visas destroying land, human trafficking, and bringing in tons of heroin
Nice victim card there
Nice smart ass there
I heard the b-rians are moved out of honeydew.. is that true? I heard it’s a ghost town down that way. Best news ever if true. I’m in north county, I’m not sure
Ive heard it’s a ghost town… but yes some are still there
Jared Huffman visiting marijuana farms and lending support? That operation is completely illegal by federal standards. He should be arrested on federal conspiracy charges…And just what is he doing about the Potter Valley dam? Making sure Sonoma keeps stealing that water!
farce,
Well said!
“Congressman” ? (drum roll).. . Jared Huffman is just another cartoon in a cartoon graveyard.
Reality check:
HuffMan didn’t bother to sign his Oath of office. Huffman, like the rest of the criminal parasites, is so deep into fraud, he can’t be Bonded. As in, no Surety will back his lies.
A person to fill a term of office is not permitted to assume the duties of the office until he files a bond and oath of office, which must be done before the commencement of the term, or the office shall be deemed vacant. People v. Quimby, 152 Colo. 231, 381 P.2d 275 (1963).
You’re either part of the solution, or you support the evil. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
I’m sad to see this scumbag receive any recognition. [edit]
Will you please provide the cites for those charges?
Anon Forrest,
I’m not sure what you mean. The court cite is People v. Quimby. It’s a Colorado court decision.
Rod Class pushed it through the Supreme Court . . . all offices are vacant. The @System@ is broken.
The “Federal legalization” mantra has no place in the 21st century. The theory of the Constitution – the gross violation of rights, show that compelling the states to submit to a federal Leviathan is not the path to liberty. The facts are presented but the obvious remains unstated. What is it that prevents us from discussing the obvious?
Funny thing about Humboldt is 95% of the residents are drug dealers
I doubt it will become legalized federally anyway. The feds like having the ability to break down your door, plus it’s great job security for the drug warrior industry. Oh, and pot makes you think (opposite of alcohol), and it threatens Big Pharma. The vast majority of the US population wants legal weed? So what. They also want single payer, no foreign wars, etc etc.
Weed doesn’t make most people think. We used to believe it was enlightening and that was their reason to shut us down. But it turns out that weed makes people stupid and compliant. They think they are getting enlightened but they are actually not creating anything revolutionary. They are still in the same box of thought, imagining that they are getting clever. It is Soma- as in the novel Brave New World. It is a palliative. It is now known to calm and control the masses. The government loves it. Real revolutionaries and true progressives understand it for the silly sideshow it now is…
Alcohol: depressant by definition. Pot: euphoriant by definition. Maybe it doesn’t enlighten you, but it takes you sideways instead of down and out. You look at our senators, people like Sessions and Limbaugh, it’s obvious they are drunks. Pot calms and controls the masses? What data shows this? You’re thinking of booze and TV.
Look at all the pot growers around here that voted for “legalization” thinking it would be cool and work out for them……I rest my case
Maybe they were drinking
Laughed at the Soma reference. I never equated it with pot but it’s apt. The two things that are most objectionable about pot is that it seems to short circuit whatever it is in the brain that makes a person alert to mistakes in their own thinking. The “wait a minute- that’s not quite right” that provokes a reevaluation of your own thinking doesn’t happen. That creates a certain level of unearned self satisfaction with poor thinking.
The other bad thing is that it’s effects last long enough that regular users are never clear thinking enough to notice that they can’t think clearly. They never worry about it at all. I swear it can be seen in comments where the person actually starts out with a reasonable point but can’t follow it to a logical conclusion.
Real revolutionary? What is that?
The US had one in 1775. Just because it lead to what exists now does not mean it was not revolutionary in its day. Study it. Russia had one in 1917. Study it too. China had one in 1911 that went on for decades. See what happened there too. Of course those are the one’s that stuck, more or less. Haiti has one in 1791. Lots to study in this category.
The point is we will all have oppertu ities to sell to these big companies and make money off our ideas.
Sell what? The land?
The millennial growers are a different breed of human Anon. They make money selling “ideas” but none of em could milk a goat or raise a property garden without dazeys supply or whatever grow store is nearest you.
Huffman…. Is this the same guy who backed Hillary as a superdelegate when his district overwhelmingly supported Bernie?
Ya, drain your water catchment ponds to come into compliance? Fuck you Fish and Game! Those ponds keep the creeks from getting sucked dry and help put out fires ya tards!
Those ponds SUCK THE CREEK DRY. that’s how they’re kept full. Those are man made ponds.
That’s not a small grow. Look at all those plastic bags. Greedy pricks.
Greenhouses forcing nature. Plastic bags containing nature. I just can’t see a ‘health’ or a ‘high’ production here. Notwithstanding the private printing press delivering green debt notes.
Nature was never meant to be manipulated. When we left the hunter-gatherer era, quality diminished. When we, knowingly or unknowingly, stepped into crops of Tax Farmers in COMMERCE, the quality diminished.
Round-Up Ready Radishes – zero quality.
Its idolatry on a grand scale. False gods.
CA. INC. Turns Off The Water
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_yIKpmM8q0
Yeah right momentum my arse
Yeah right
I agree with many comments. These are the big greenrusher growers who have ruined anything small or good. Nice dreads bro. Did you get a beeswax kit for those? So heady. One of these guys that’s always telling you how big their legal gardens are and also still moving shit umthe old fashioned way. Bunch chumps and posers
And let the haters hate . You suck guy
These guys are an insult to actually farmers. They are florists and carpetbaggers. The hoop house was invented in Humboldt?[edit] Hope y’all make tons of money ripping people off with your shwag weed and single joints. What a joke. Support the underground! If you really care about pot. Find an old school grower still doin it and buy their weed. Cheaper and better than any store.
Meanwhile in Eastern Europe…. a family is living like royalty, laughing at all you humboldt whiners while sleeping on pillows of American cash
Where is the cannabis Huffmans looking at?? Or does he realizes its federally illegal ?? I’ll take the latter
How stupid is fish and game? That water is precious every drop! Ever hear of fire? Is f&w going to be there to put a fire out? Fuck those idiots!