Jake Brenner (ENVS) and Van Butsic (UC Berkeley) led a team of eight undergraduates (including Kent Bueche and Neal Anderson, recent ENVS graduates) in the first-ever systematic mapping of cannabis farms in northern California. The study took place in Humboldt County in the so-called “Emerald Triangle,” producer of 70-85% of the marijuana consumed in the US.
Their research shows how cannabis agriculture can pose significant threats to forests, stream ecosystems, and endangered fish. On the other hand, the research suggests that sustainable cannabis agriculture can reconcile environmental protection and rural economic development, since enormous revenues can be reaped from very small plots of land. For example, in Humboldt County, 1.2 km2 of land in cannabis produces an estimated $1 billion retail value every year. This is greater than twice the annual value of timber, livestock, dairy, nursery, and vegetable crops combined.
The paper, entitled: “Cannabis (Cannabis sativa or C. indica) agriculture and the environment: a systematic, spatially-explicit survey and potential impacts,” appeared this week in Environmental Research Letters.
Open-access full-text is available here:
This work was funded by a Summer Grant for Faculty Research.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20160426085125465