Emerald Triangle | |
|---|---|
 Map of the Emerald Triangle | |
| Coordinates:40°00′N123°30′W / 40.0°N 123.5°W /40.0; -123.5 | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| Counties | Mendocino County,Humboldt County,Trinity County |
| Largest city | Eureka |
| Area | |
| • Land | 10,253.58 sq mi (26,556.7 km2) |
| Population | |
• Total | 236,250 |
• Estimate (2019)[2] | 234,592 |
| • Density | 23/sq mi (8.9/km2) |
TheEmerald Triangle is a region inNorthern California that derives its name from being the largestcannabis-producing region in the United States. The region includes three counties in an upside-down triangular configuration:
Growers have been cultivatingCannabis plants in this region since the 1960s, duringSan Francisco'sSummer of Love. Growing cannabis in the Emerald Triangle is considered a way of life, and the locals believe that everyone living in this region is either directly or indirectly reliant on the cannabis industry.[3] The industry exploded in the region with the passage ofCalifornia Proposition 215 (1996), which legalized the use ofcannabis for medicinal purposes in California.[4] The passage ofProposition 64 in 2016 legalized the general sale and distribution of cannabis.
When growing cannabis was illegal, this area was attractive due to its remoteness and limited law enforcement capabilities. The area has developed a reputation for cannabis with exceptionally good flavor and cannabinoid profiles.[5]
In 1984, Humboldt residents filed a federal lawsuit claiming they had been subject to illegal surveillance byU-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft deployed by the California-based multiagency task force started the year prior, theCampaign Against Marijuana Planting.[6]
As of 2023, Humboldt County has the largest cannabis farming industry in the Emerald Triangle. While the largest legal pot farm in the county was 8 acres (3.2 ha), a 2021 survey found the median pot farm size to be 0.22 acres (0.09 ha).[7]
The total population in the Emerald Triangle is 236,250 according to the 2010 census.[8] The majority of the population is widely spread throughout the woody hills and mountains that make up the area. With an area of 11,138 square miles, the Emerald Triangle population density is 21/mi2.
In this sparsely populated region, the largest urban area is the city ofEureka in Humboldt County with a population approaching 27,000 people. The second and third largest cities, by far larger than any other cities in the region, areArcata (also in Humboldt), with 17,231 people, andUkiah (in Mendocino), with 16,075 people.[3][9]
There is an environmental impact from outdoor cannabis production in the Emerald Triangle, which is largely unregulated. These effects include illegal damming, diversion and taking of water from streams (especially during summer), and alsopesticide-laden runoff into streams, all of which may degrade critical salmonfisheries.[10][11]Clearcutting and roadbuilding for the cannabis plantations can also degrade the environment and endanger salmon.[12] The grows often occur illegally onpublic land.[13][14]
The Lookouts, founded in 1985 byLarry Livermore, who also foundedLookout! Records, wereTré Cool's first band. The punk rock band was named for the fire lookout at Iron Peak in Mendocino County, which led local marijuana growers to threaten to burn down Livermore's house for bringing too much publicity to their hilly isolated region of the Emerald Triangle nearSpyrock.[15] The band wrote many songs about the surrounding area onMendocino Homeland andSpy Rock Road, an album named for the road lined with marijuana grows that leads to Iron Peak. Livermore also wroteSpy Rock Memories, a 2013 book about his time living off the grid in the heart of the Emerald Triangle.
Homegrown is a 1998 movie starringBilly Bob Thornton that follows marijuana growers in an unspecific area of the Emerald Triangle, most likely northern Mendocino County.
On the TV showLost, during flashback scenes in the episode "Further Instructions",John Locke picks up a hitchhiker who happens to be an undercover police officer on State Route 36 and brings him back to a farm nearBridgeville, where they grow marijuana in a greenhouse.
Humboldt County is a 2008 comedy-drama about a medical school dropout who drives north to Humboldt County to live on a pot farm.[16]
In "Object Impermanence", an episode ofShowtime'sWeeds, Nancy Botwin drives to Heylia James' boobytrapped outdoor marijuana grow in Humboldt County.
Discovery Channel'sPot Cops, a 2013 docuseries, followed the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office's Marijuana Enforcement Team in 2013.[17]
The 2013 bookHumboldt: Life on America's Marijuana Frontier by Emily Brady, is written about the marijuana industry in Humboldt County and the surrounding Emerald Triangle.[18]
Welcome to Willits is a 2016 horror movie which takes place in the Emerald Triangle.
Amazon Prime'sBudding Prospects was a 2017 pilot episode for a series based on the1984 novel of the same name byT. C. Boyle that was set in Mendocino County in the 1980s. Amazon released the pilot but did not greenlight the series.[19]
Two other nationally distributed paperback books written about marijuana cultivation in the Emerald Triangle include Steve Chapple's 1984 bookOutlaws in Babylon: Shocking True Stories on the Marijuana Frontier andRay Raphael's 1985 bookCash Crop: An American Dream.
Netflix's 2018 true crime television seriesMurder Mountain examines the high rate of missing people and murders in Humboldt County. The show covers the history of illegal marijuana farming including the relationship of local farmers and local authorities as the area attempts to transition into a legal cannabis industry.[20]
The 2020 filmFreeland is about a longtime Humboldt County marijuana grower, played byKrisha Fairchild, growing illegally despite the availability of the legal market.[21]
The 2021 documentaryLady Buds, produced byGravitas Ventures, about women who work in the marijuana industry in Northern California, is being developed into a scripted comedy feature film and a non-scripted series.[22]
Hulu's 2021 docuseriesSasquatch is based on the murder of pot growers in Mendocino County in the 1990s, purportedly perpetrated byBigfoot.[23]
The 2021 crime podcastDark Woods, produced byDick Wolf and set in Humboldt County that includes a trespass marijuana grow on public land, is currently being developed byUniversal Television for a TV adaptation.[24][25]
Environmental damage from pot farming has been a major problem for decades. Drug traffickers growing illegally, often on public land, use pesticides and fertilizers that have poisoned wildlife, including endangered spotted owls and Pacific fishers. Growers have clear-cut trees, removed native vegetation, diverted streams, [and] caused erosion
| Propositions |  | |
|---|---|---|
| California Senate Bills | California Senate Bill 420 (2003) | |
| California Assembly Bills | ||
| Related | ||
