Bandelier fire misses cannabis stash

From the Albuquerque Journal Online:

Amid the thousands of acres of vaporized trees and blackened vegetation sat an island of green — a 5,000-plant marijuana plantation that survived both this summer’s massive Las Conchas Fire and catastrophic flooding that followed. The 6- to 10-foot-tall marijuana plants were grown in Bandelier National Monument by unknown growers, who remain at large and who officials believe battled the fire to protect their plants. The 5,000 marijuana plants, which survived a fire that burned more than 150,000 acres of New Mexico wildland, were pulled from their roots Thursday and taken by Black Hawk helicopter to an undisclosed area and burned.