Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I ride and work on the Sam Houston Nat. Forest, so that's where I've seen them.  But I know from our law enforcement folks that they're on all the Nat. Forests in Texas.  The ones I've seen have been in clearcuts and similar openings...the "product" apparently needs good sunlight to grow well.  The patches were small...from 5 or 6 plants to one patch that was a strip about 10 ft wide and 20-25 feet long.  It doesn't seem to be as big of a business down here...I've heard that the climate isn't right for growing lots of it.  So we don't tend to get the big patches, guarded by booby traps, etc.  Just little patches grown by John Doe to make a little extra cash.  We *do* get a lot of meth labs.  If you come across anything like ice chests, coolers, etc. in the woods, steer clear immediately.  Bad news...and who knows if the nut case who is makin' the stuff is nearby.  About three years ago I was riding by myself, and exploring an overgrown trail.  I came up on several large ice chests that looked kinda new...no accumulations of pine needles on them, etc.  There was also a big barrel there.  My horse and I both heard a noise behind some brush, and I caught a flash of color.  There was obviously someone hiding there.  So I just started talking to my horse, "It's nothing to be scared of...just some garbage somebody dumped out here...come on, no need to be scared of some trash..."  And off we went.  Of course, I knew darned well it was NOT trash, but a meth lab, but I wanted the person hiding to think I didn't know any better.  I told our law enforcement officer the next day, but when he went out there, it had all been removed.

 

Dawn in East Texas

 
-----Original Message-----
From: Kristen A Fisher <kskf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: rdcarrie@xxxxxxx; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 12:39:11 -0600
Subject: RE: [RC] Interesting article on Spread of Weeds by Horses

Dawn - Could you let me know exactly where you have seen these small patches in TX as - ahem - yeah, I would like to avoid any potential conflict LOL.

 

Kristen

---

From: rdcarrie@xxxxxxx [mailto:rdcarrie@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 11:21 AM
To: kskf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; KimFue@xxxxxxx; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [RC] Interesting article on Spread of Weeds by Horses

Yes, pot is quite the cash crop in the Pacific NW.  When I was living in Oregon, there was speculation that it was the number one revenue-producing "crop" in the state, outstripping even the timber industry.  <G>  When deer hunting in the Oregon Coast Range, we'd occasionally come across patches of "product" growing in the National Forest.  We'd casually turn and go the other direction, not wanting to risk the booby traps and possible armed guards.

I've come across an occasional small patch in the Nat. Forest here in Texas, but nothing on the scale of what we'd find in Oregon.

 

Dawn in East Texas

 
-----Original Message-----
From: Kristen A Fisher <kskf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: KimFue@xxxxxxx; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 09:28:47 -0600
Subject: RE: [RC] Interesting article on Spread of Weeds by Horses

I know this reply is about 2 weeks old but I have been confined to reading revenue-related emails and not RC so I am just catching up on this. Can someone remind me what grants AERC has funded to to similar studies and where? I thought the Grant Committee had approved something like this a while back and can't remember the details - it would be interesting to compare procedures and results.

 

Also, it seems weird to me that all the "alien invaders" they reference are from other *continents*. I would suspect that horses are not the ones bringing these weeds from abroad???