Public land gone to pot

Clear Lake and Lake County are known worldwide for its excellent bass fishing. But the county also owns the dubious title as the "Marijuana Capitol of California." For the past three years more marijuana plants have been eradicated in the county than anywhere in the state. In fact, so far this year the state, county and federal authorities have confiscated more than 500,000 plants in Lake County. That's more than the entire state of Kentucky eradicated last year. Most of the plants were eradicated on public lands such as the Mendocino National Forest and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands. According to authorities, the illegal growing of marijuana is destroying wildlife and the environment, plus making the public lands unsafe for hikers, hunters and others who enjoy the outdoors...read more

The federal and many state agencies have done everything they could to exclude human and commercial activities from the public lands and then seem surprised when someone other than their berry-eating backpacker buddies take advantage of the landscape they have created.

If you outlaw human use of government lands only outlaws will have use of it.