The environmental impact, and the cost of the clean-up of illegal marijuana grows in California….especially on Public Lands, is still being assessed. That said, in many cases officials find sites where trees have been clear-cut, waterways have been diverted, and fertilizer and rodenticide have been used. All of those tend to lead to other issues ‘down stream’, such as landslides, and wild animal deaths (because the rodenticide that kills a rodent, is also likely to kill whatever eats that rodent). Although California’s now-legal market has grown to more than $3 billion annually, it’s still dwarfed by the nearly $9 billion illegal market.
