From The Field

California.  The land of milk and honey.  Where people around the world have come to both extract the precious resources and make their fortunes. Starting during the gold rush, through the timber harvests, and continuing today with marijuana. The demand for California’s high quality cannabis is stronger than ever, despite the massive environmental impacts this once romantic industry has caused throughout so much of the state. Nowhere more so then the Emerald triangle, considered ground zero for the California marijuana industry.

2015 started off in a deeper and more extended drought than ever before in the history of the state.  The 2014-2015 winter season provided no relief in either rainfall or snowpack. Despite this stark reality, by early spring the cannabis nurseries and light dep industry was in full bloom as if it had rained all winter. From the nursery perspective there was enough water to start the season, and it was anybody’s guess where the water to finish the plants would come from.

Five years ago the light dep industry (where plants are started earlier, grown under hoop houses to about three feet tall, then having tarps pulled over the houses creating 12 hours of darkness to trick the plants into flowering early) really got started in order to capture the higher market price caused by the decline in supply from the previous year’s full season outdoor crop.  This innovative way to grow cannabis brought fresh cannabis flowers to the market in June instead of November, allowed a farmer to get two crops a season, and to cash in on the seasonal price spike. However as the quality and market acceptance grew, so did the number of plants grown in this manner.  Today the light deprivation supply of cannabis has erased that price spike by expanding to meet the demand.  Today entire hilltops have been illegally bulldozed, leveled, the timber pushed over the side of the mountain, wasted and greenhouses constructed pumping out tens of thousands of cannabis plants across Northern California.

Early this season resource managers and ordinary people were bewildered why and how the streams and creeks far above (in elevation) of standard agriculture, (vineyards and orchards) were drying up!  Creeks that would normally be flowing into the salmon bearing rivers were simply disconnecting or reduced to a trickle.  Earlier then the author had seen in 40 years, the rivers below were looking as if autumn had already come.  Low flow rates, stagnant water, alga blooms and poor water quality.  The drought certainly was a factor, but a new major factor was the explosion of the light dep industry.  At a time of year when the full season outdoor crops would be using little water, maintaining their young plants, the largely illegal light dep industry was watering large plants in the vegetative state pushing them to grow before the tarps would be pulled beginning the flowering stages. This heavy water use for cannabis, this early in the season was quite simply – unprecedented.  In addition to the increased number of plants the 2015 season was hotter earlier than ever before recorded.  It was a perfect storm of environmental destruction.

In the meantime many political lobbyists for the cannabis industry were putting pressure on County Supervisors to allow larger crops to be produced while reducing the regulatory oversight required of every other form of agriculture in the Golden State. Again the perfect storm.  This was made so evident with the large scale busts that occurred on Island Mountain in the heart of the Emerald triangle.  Google “Island Mountain arrests” to see the photos of the destruction that had been occurring for years but made so much worse by the expansion of the industry.  The collision was made so clear on a radio call in show… a mother called into a radio show discussing cannabis with screaming young children out of school for the summer but unable to swim in the rivers because the alga blooms had arrived months early.  Think of the ramifications of this…  youth, summer, swimming in the rivers – gone. That mother’s anger at the cannabis industry put the entire issue in focus.

To be very clear however, the large scale bad actors do not represent the many fine people in the California cannabis industry who both grow a world class product while caring for and taking stewardship of their – our lands. There are many fine examples to look towards for a way to move into the future.

Only a few years ago, water use was not a consideration in cannabis farming.  Smart pots above ground were filled with purchased soils and plants were grown in 600 gallon fabric containers.  These above ground containers use much more water as the sides evaporate irrigated water out into the summer sun.  Heat buildup in the pots required up to 15 gallons a day towards the end of the season when the plants could be ten feet tall and the temperatures are in the 90’s.  Today this method is no longer in use by responsible growers or the use has been modified.  Now the pots may be buried half way, and the bottoms opened so the roots of the plants can grow into the natural soils, conserving water.  Heavy mulching with compost or straw keeps the soils cooler and allows the containers to retain the water that is given to the plants.  Many farmers are forgoing the pots all together and are planting their plants directly into the ground, into amended soils perhaps but into the ground, further conserving water.  Where only a few years ago farmers were watering with hoses and hand wands, drip irrigation is now being used under the heavy mulching or straw.  Seeing these practices becoming more common gives the author great hope and pride in the future of the cannabis industry and in the California farmer. These practices have reduced the water required to grow a cannabis plant by half over what was used just a few years ago. These are the farmers that show us how to move forward.

Water.  This is the precious resource that is being used by all agriculture and cannabis farming is no exception. As we move into the future of cannabis farming sensible water usage will continue to be a major factor in the industry’s growth. Rain water catchment and high water forbearance are the two most sustainable methods of acquiring water. High water forbearance is when water is captured and stored in ponds or tanks during the high water flows of winter.  The 2014 – 2015 winter season however provided only a few days of high water and all of that was needed for the forests and fish.  Rain water catchment therefore becomes the best method.  Rain water catchment can occur in both ponds and tanks.  Many of the ponds I have seen throughout California are permitted, constructed properly and provide much needed habitat in an otherwise dry area.  I have seen ponds that are established, and surrounded by trees and vegetative cover.  These habitats are used by the regions wildlife, birds, cats, bears and wild pigs (although their numbers need to be reduced). They capture rain water that runs down the hills into the ponds. Another way anyone can do is to capture the rain that falls on the farm and greenhouse roofs.  Each inch of rain on 1,000 sq feet of roof provides 550 gals of water to be used for the growing season. There is an initial cost outlay of either ponds or tanks but the pay off comes after the 5th year.  One simple way of managing the cannabis industry’s growth is to require the storage of the water used for the crop.  This would both encourage sound investment as well as limit the size of the growing operations.  This would also provide incentives for water conservation methods.

Cannabis farming in California has a bright future.  It is the state’s largest agricultural crop in terms of dollars and this projection will surely continue as legalization moves forward.  Weather, soil type, and name recognition assure California’s place in the industry.  Conscientious cannabis farmers are providing examples of how the industry can move into sustainability. All cannabis farmers need to follow their lead to participate in this bright future.

Chris Van Hook is a medical cannabis compliance attorney in California and is the director of the Clean Green Certified Program, a program for cannabis farming based on the USDA National Organic Program.