In August 2000, a Madera County sheriff's deputy shot and killed a man at a marijuana farm. In the raid, deputies found 7,000 marijuana plants that had grown 5 to 8 feet tall. The size of a typical white supremacist gang remains between 5 and 20 members who range in age from their early teens to mid-twenties. The cultivation of cannabis is widespread in Northern California, especially in the Emerald Triangle. Cannabis cultivators in this area are predominantly young Caucasian males.
Growers increasingly use state and federal lands to cultivate cannabis.
In the Bay Area, land owned by the San Francisco Water Department and the East Bay Regional Park has been used for grows of up to 20,000 plants. When growers use locations like the national forests, the forests themselves suffer from the adverse effects of cannabis cultivation. Cannabis cultivators sometimes set the woods on fire to retaliate against raids by authorities. One blaze burned 12,000 acres. Growers clear-cut cultivation areas with chain saws and spread tons of fertilizer and pesticides.