September 7, 2005 - Top Stories
From various publications around the U.S. we’ve gathered a list of places where VC residents can send help:
• American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund: (800) HELP NOW or (800) 257-7575 (Spanish), or http://www.redcross.org/
• Catholic Charities, USA; (800) 919-9338, or http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/
• Salvation Army: (800) SAL-ARMY, or http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/
• United Methodist Committee on Relief: (800) 554-8583, or http://gbgmumc.org/
• International Relief Teams: (619) 284-7979, or www.irteams.org
For a complete list of charitable agencies recommended by FEMA, visit http://www.fema.gov/rrr/help2.shtm
The Red Cross is offering a voluntary self-registration system that can help families and friends locate people affected by the disaster. For more information, go to http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/katrina or call (877) 568-3317.
By all accounts the First Day of School at Valley Center-Pauma schools on Thursday was one of the smoothest ever.
This was the first time that the new schedule was in force, which started school on an odd day, Thursday, instead of on the day after Labor Day, which has been the traditional opening.
Nevertheless, things went as smooth as silk.
According to Supt. Karen Jobe, “Enrollment is looking good. We thought that because the first day was on a Thursday that there would be an issue.
“Things seemed to be going really well. There was only about five minutes at Lilac School where there was a problem with traffic. The CHP helped us immensely at the middle school and high school.”
Primary School Principal Patty Christopher told The Roadrunner on Thursday, “I think it went quite smoothly. We are waiting to make sure all students have gotten home smoothly. Very few changes have to be made in the classrooms. We’re trying to work out in any kinks, but there weren’t many. Our classroom sizes seem to be good.”
The primary school started with about 460 kids.
Wendy Heredia, lower elementary principal commented, “We had a very successful day, a smooth beginning. We’re looking forward to a great year. Everybody was ready to go and the kids got to their classes on time.”
Although enrollment at the lower school is 492, only 450 showed up. Mrs. Heredia said they figured that the rest would come in by Tuesday.
Ron McCowan, upper elementary principal called opening “a great day! I thought it went really well. We’ve got almost everybody here, in spite of it being Thursday.”
He added, “The first day of school is sure fun to watch! The excitement on the kids’ faces, the fifth graders coming up from the lower school for the first time. It’s fun to watch their faces. I love it.”
Pauma Elementary School Principal Mary Gorsuch, who we spoke to on Tuesday, said, “We had a very smooth first couple of days. We were able to contact all of the families of students who didn’t come in the first couple of days and they are all here.
She added, “Our enrollment is 226, which is lower for us but we have a pretty nice size kindergarten and first grade. We are still looking for pre-K students.”
Reporting on the Palomar Mountain one-room school she commented, “We are up to ten students at Palomar and still looking for families who are home schooling or independent study. We would love to have them do their studies through our school. Call me if you’d like to do that.”
Middle school Principal Chris Sommer called the first day “a very smooth opening. We have a total 664. We were anticipated 656, but we had some additional enrollment.”
She added, “We had a very smooth opening as far as traffic. We had two motorcycle patrolmen who stopped traffic on VC road and that made all the difference. We were completely cleared out almost immediately, which has never happened before. Children found their classes. All in all a very smooth first day.”
“It was fabulous,” said High School Principal Lucy Haines. “We had an great opening. They were on time. They found classrooms. it was like they had been in the school for the past three months.
“In all my years opening schools this was the smoothest I have ever experienced,” she said.
Valley Center seems the quintessential place to raise a family: small town, good values, tight-knit community—and a large percentage of the county’s outdoor marijuana gardens.
Special Agent for the DEA, Misha Piastro commented on how unusual Valley Center is with the usual, “Valley Center is right up the grade but a world away from Escondido and the rest of the county.
“Unfortunately, isolation is always enticing for criminals,” said Piastro. “[In a] small community, everyone knows who is coming and going and that’s an advantage for [criminals] as well. It doesn’t mean their crime will end up there, but it could start there. For example, these [marijuana] groves or Meth labs often end up in more rural communities.”
For reasons of isolation, climate and a large number of agricultural areas, Valley Center, Fallbrook and Palomar Mountain are hot spots in San Diego County.
The federally-funded Narcotic Task Force of the DEA administers an outdoor marijuana eradication program set on ridding Southern California of these gardens.
Last year, in San Diego County alone, 300,000 plants were eradicated and the majority of those were found in North County.
“It is simply a lot of marijuana,” said Piastro. “[And] each good plant produces $1500 worth of solo products. The bud alone, which has the highest THC content, will go for $1500 to $3000 per pound. When you do the math it is a staggering amount of money that these illegal operations produce.”
And by the way, the math comes out to $450,000,000 on the low end.
The growing season runs May to October. Currently the task force finds itself in the middle of the summer harvest. To date it has eradicated 131,540 plants.
Due to the pressure this program exerts on pot farmers, what used to be larger gardens are now becoming smaller compartmentalized gardens. There may be an umbrella organization running them all, but the individual gardens run a couple thousands plants here and there so as not to take such a hit once exposed.
“That’s their strategy,” said Piastro. “It’s not working too well because there is a particular task force officer that is phenomenal. He has been doing this for years and you really can’t hide from the guy. He’s only limited by energy and time. It’s a lot of work to get out into these rural areas, find the gardens, insert a team and eradicate but he is extremely effective.”
Legality aside, marijuana farming takes its toll on the land. The growers go into a rural area, usually public land, and wipe out the underbrush but leave the second layer (something like Manzanita) to cover the gardens.
While most of the land is not suitable for conventional farming, land down the hill from it might be and that’s where the effects hit home.
“What you will notice is erosion from water rolling down the hills from where they have taken out the underbrush,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Doyle Krouskop.
“That results is an overall ecological damage. [Also] there is trash left from people living there, gardening there, cooking over an open flame and making toilet facilities. It is very devastating to the area, especially ones that are in state parks.”
Catching the culprit is obviously an issue. Even the most covert special agent can’t go incognito while crashing through the brush wielding a machete. That’s why they rely on citizens.
“Generally speaking, [these groves] are on public land where there is a water source,” said Piastro. “[Many times] it is stolen from citrus or avocado groves but that’s not always the case. These guys are pretty inventive on how they get their water but they have to have water.”
Water, or the lack of it, seems to be one of the flaws in the system of these drug cartels. A water line can be followed, even one that is miles long and runs straight up a hill—as many of them do.
One of the most common ways the DEA finds marijuana gardens is a call on the DEA/NTF Marijuana Hotline from an avocado farmer saying his bill has skyrocketed.
A few telltale signs that you might be wandering into illegal marijuana gardens while out on your Sunday hike:
• A path that appears from nowhere or is meant to look concealed.
• Plumbing running in a location where there are no groves.
• Campsites where no person would camp.
If you see that, the task force encourages you to turn around the head for the phone.
Most groves are not protected on the outside but once inside, there is no telling what sort of booby traps you may find.
“This is NOT a place you want to play around,” said Piastro. “We’ve seen improvised shotgun booby traps along the trail. So you walk in, hit a trip wire and get shot. We have also seen fish hooks hung at head level.
“Again, [because of] the amount of money generated, these [people] are interested in protecting their investment and history has shown they do that with violence. We just had a park ranger outside of San Jose shot dead by these outdoor marijuana guys. So don’t get involved, don’t wander into the grove site, just tell us and we will take care of it.”
The 131, 540 plants found this year came from 144 different sites, which is high for the season. If the farmers are branching out into different areas, the chances you may wander onto those areas increases.
“The deputy in charge of this is very energetic and he responds to every call he gets, we give these priority because it is a concerned citizen,” said Piastro.
The DEA/NTF Marijuana hotline is 858-616-4444.
Labor Day Weekend (Sunday) a head-on crash of two motorcycles occurred on the South Grade on Palomar Mountain. The resulting fire was extinguished by the Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Department before it could spread to the dry brush on the mountainside. Three bikers were injured with one being transported to a local trauma center. According to Palomar Fire Chief George Lucia Jr. a second crash occurred at the same time one mile up the South Grade and that injured biker was also transported to the local trauma center. The California Highway Patrol is investigating both crashes.
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
Copyright © 2005, Palomar Community Newspapers, dba Valley Roadrunner. All rights reserved. This content may not be archived, retransmitted, saved in a database, or used for any commercial purpose without the express written permission of the Valley Roadrunner.