Gilroy
– An area near Gilroy Hot Springs that was decimated by
marijuana growers this summer received a major clean-up this
week.
Drug enforcement officials raided the marijuana farm in August,
seizing about 6,000 plants in a small, narrow canyon about three
miles northwest of the hot springs, east of Gilroy.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – An area near Gilroy Hot Springs that was decimated by marijuana growers this summer received a major clean-up this week.
Drug enforcement officials raided the marijuana farm in August, seizing about 6,000 plants in a small, narrow canyon about three miles northwest of the hot springs, east of Gilroy.
On Monday, 10 people, including park rangers and agents from the Department of Fish and Game and the Open Space Authority performed a day-long clean-up to help restore the area to its natural condition. The illegal growers caused severe environmental damage to the creek and surrounding area to maintain their half-mile-long garden.
“It affected, basically, 4 to 4-1/2 miles of creek because it was way up the canyon and the creek is a tributary of Coyote Creek,” said John Nores, a fish and game warden in South County.
The illegal growers had dumped fertilizer and pesticides directly into the creek, killing virtually all plant and animal life.
“We basically lost all the red-legged frogs, yellow-legged frogs, all the steelhead trout out there,” Nores said.
Someone also cut down trees – some as big as 18 inches in diameter – and moved or removed soil in the area.
The clean-up effort included clearing the area of the chemicals, breaking down damns the growers had constructed, and removing trash from the area, including camping debris, plastic liners for the creek, irrigation piping and water hoses, Nores said.
The effort cost almost $10,000, said Patrick Congdon, general manager of Open Space Authority.
About $7,000 will pay for a helicopter that was used to pick up loads of trash collected from the area.
“It’s such rough terrain that you can’t walk the trash out of there,” Nores said.
With some follow-up, the area should recover.
“I’m sure the (animal) population will rebound, but it’s that initial take,” Congdon said. “Every little bit impacts those frogs, and to some it may not seem like a big deal, but every little bit puts more pressure on these populations.”
The Open Space Authority or California park system will monitor the area more frequently now, Congdon said, particularly since the extensive damage indicated the area may have been used for three to four years.
“We’ll continue to monitor the creek,” Nores said. “We’ll have to do a little bit of touch-up restoration. We’ll continue to monitor the area so this doesn’t happen again.”
