Zusha Elinson/The Bay Citizen

State, federal and local agents were on a mission to cut down pot plants in Mt. Madonna County Park Wednesday

GILROY — Wednesday was a typical summer day in Northern California.

The sun was shining, the sky was blue — and 16 county, state and federal agents dressed in full camouflage were cutting down thousands of marijuana plants in a remote mountain park near Gilroy. 

The state’s Campaign Against Marijuana Planting has continued unabated every summer since 1984 even as cities have wholeheartedly allowed medical marijuana dispensaries to flourish. Indeed, on Tuesday night, the Oakland City Council voted to double the number of dispensaries in the city from four to eight.

Neil Cuthbert, who led the CAMP team Wednesday, said that the changing attitude toward marijuana in California has not changed the program’s mission, especially in public parks.

“We believe it is necessary,” he said. “This is a park, people hike here and these growers can sometimes be armed and dangerous. There’s also the environmental problems associated with these grows,” like erosion and pesticides.

This year, the CAMP will cut down more than 4 million marijuana plants statewide, an all-time high, according to Cuthbert. Between 5,000 and 10,000 of that total will be from Wednesday’s operation in the tree-covered hills of Mt. Madonna County Park, a secluded 3,688-acre park in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Cuthbert’s crew, consisting of California National Guard members, state agents and county sheriff's deputies, found marijuana plants growing among the trees in four spots — two inside the park and two on private land — far from any road or well-used trail. 

A helicopter carried the agents on a long rope and dropped them at the growing sites. From the helicopter, they could be seen cutting down small plants, which they said were marijuana. 

In this video, you can see plants that the helicopter pilot said were marijuana in a clearing along with irrigation equipment.

When the marijuana plants are mature and valuable, Santa Clara County opts to dump them in landfills, said Troy Smith, a spokesman for the sheriff. CAMP team members said they planned to leave the Mt. Madonna marijuana plants, which were still young, out in the woods after being cut.

Dale Gieringer, the California coordinator for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which works to promote the legalization of marijuana, said that the eradication will go on as long as marijuana is illegal. 

He said the CAMP program was what inspired him to work for NORML, but that over the years the agents have reformed their “invasive” and “cowboy” style, focusing on larger grows. He also said that they tend to leave medical marijuana growers alone.

“CAMP has been more or less respecting medical cannabis grows in recent years,” he said. “The medical cannabis grows tend to be smaller ones and the larger ones are usually known to the local authorities.”

There is a new twist to the eradication program this summer. Instead of just cutting and running, as has been the practice for years, Santa Clara County Sheriff Captain Michael Doty that there is now a “heavier emphasis” on nabbing the growers too, in hopes linking them to “larger drug cartels.”

Although eleven suspects have been arrested in the raids, none have been linked to cartels yet, Doty said.

The sheriff’s marijuana eradication team, which includes two detectives funded by the federal government, spends the first six months of the year scouting for marijuana gardens. They found the gardens on Mt. Madonna in January, he said. The rest of summer is spent destroying them with the help of CAMP.

“It must be summer again,” said Gieringer.