California's Eureka Times-Standard reported July 27 that a two-week multi-agency operation eradicated some 55,000 cannabis plants on and around the Yurok Indian reservation. The Yurok Tribe carried out similar raids last year, eradicating 15,000 plants, and intends to go on doing so every summer until growers leave the area, Yurok vice-chair Susan Masten said. "We're not going to quit until there are zero plants growing on the reservation," she told the Times-Standard. Authorities also seized 1,000 pounds of processed cannabis, made seven arrests, served 30 search warrants, discovered one butane hash oil lab, and allegedly found (unnamed) evidence indicating the possibility of Mexican cartel involvement in some of the grows. Along with tribal police, the Humboldt County Drug Task Force, California Department of Fish & Wildlife, National Guard, and California Department of Forestry participated in "Operation Yurok."
According to a press release posted on the Yurok Tribe's Facebook page, the aim of the operation was to return all water possible to the Klamath River and communities downstream from grow sites. "One of the most egregious environmental damages we saw on the grows was water diversion," said tribal environmental director Louisa McCovey. "This was a total disrespect for our land and resources." Water resources are especially critical in light of California's severe drought, now in its fourth year. McCovey also cited unpermitted land grading and tree cutting, raw sewage leakage and huge piles of garbage at grow sites—household trash, batteries, irrigation hoses, appliances and fertilizers. "They're not following any laws and then they're devastating the environment," she said.
The Yurok and Hoopa tribes, outraged at ecological damage and violation of tribal sovereignty by outlaw growers, have in recent years coorperated with the Humbioldt County sheriff, California National Guard and federal authoriites in eradiction campaigns. But when the the Alturas Indian Rancheria and the Pit River Tribe in Modoc County launched their own state-legal and environmentally sound medical grow ops, they were last month raided by the DEA—which can also be seen as a violation of tribal sovereignty.
Cross-post to High Times
Graphic by Global Ganja Report
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Kali Yuga in Humboldt County
The Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes are opposing a Bureau of Reclamation plan to increase flows into the Trinity River to prevent another salmon kill on the Trinity and Kalamath. Tribal officials say the planned releases are inadequate—just over half of what the tribes had requested in July. The 32,000 acre-feet of water from Trinity Lake reservoir to be released from Lewiston Dam in August nd September would help flush away deadly pathogens and cool waters. Parasite levels on the lower Klamath approach those seen in the 2002 fish kill. The tribes accuse BuRec of capitulating to Central Valley farmers that receive Trinity water through the Clear Creek Tunnel diversion to the Sacramento River. The Hoopa Valley Tribe press release on the issue is pretty chilling: "Members of the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation are facing a state of emergency. As Northern California is consumed by wildfires, it is neither safe to breath the air nor drink the water. There are daily health warnings in place advising our members of degraded air and drinking water both of which are essential for human existence." (Lost Coast Outpost, Aug. 4; Eureka Times-Standard, Aug. 3)