Mendocino authorities have destroyed about 56,000 marijuana plants in the past nine days.
No suspects were arrested during the operations, Mendocino County Sheriff's Capt. Kurt Smallcomb said.
Deputies raided a series of gardens Aug. 19 in remote areas near Yorkville and destroyed 20,675 pot plants, Smallcomb said. They found evidence that people had been living at a campsite near the gardens, he said.
On Wednesday, agents found a shotgun and 13,954 marijuana plants at an illicit campsite in the Dark Gulch area of Comptche.
Deputies Thursday destroyed 9,980 pot plants found on federal Bureau of Land Management land below the Red Mountain campground in the Cow Mountain Recreation Area. And on Friday, deputies searched a site in the Fish Rock Road area of Gualala and seized 11,871 pot plants.
During the 2010 pot growing season, narcotics deputies with the County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team, called COMMET, have destroyed a total of 542,388 plants, made 50 arrests, seized 66 weapons and found 594 pounds of processed marijuana, Smallcomb said.
Agents with the state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, or CAMP, assisted in the operations.
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