A panel of grassroots environmental activists, community members, and policy makers will discuss efforts to address the environmental impacts of marijuana cultivation. Panelists will review the impacts of marijuana agriculture and offer insights into the opportunities and challenges involved in addressing these problems.
Session one, from 1-2:45 p.m., will consider the challenges and responses; session two, from 3-5 p.m., will evaluate the environmental, cultural and economic futures of sustainability and marijuana agriculture.
Panelists include Hezekiah Allen, Executive Director, Mattole Restoration Council; Gary Hughes, Executive Director, Environmental Protection Information Center; Mike Downey, Humboldt County Sheriff; Paul Gallegos, Humboldt County District Attorney; Scott Greacen, Executive Director, Friends of the Eel River; Tasha McKee, Executive Director, Sanctuary Forest; Ryan Sundberg, Humboldt County District 5 Supervisor; Mark Lovelace, Humboldt County District 3 Supervisor; Scott Downie, California Department of Fish and Game senior biologist; and community members Casey O’Neill and Kyle Keegan.
The Oct. 12 symposium is sponsored by the Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research and Humboldt State’s Department of Sociology. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Tony Silvaggio in the Department of Sociology at (707) 826-3142 or avs1@humboldt.edu.