2026
Philip Georgakakos, David Drale, Chris Dillis, Jesse Hahm, Dana Lapides, Theodore Grantham
Using hydrograph-inferred hillslope groundwater storage and streamflow relationships, we propose a novel approach to estimate streamflow depletion from groundwater pumping that is well-suited to areas with limited groundwater monitoring infrastructure.
Environment
2026
Dillis, C., Baruch, E., 2, Grantham, T.
Using spatial and temporal analyses across multiple watersheds, this study assesses how water use for cannabis cultivation compares to other major water users in terms of total demand, spatial distribution, and interannual fluctuations.
Community Environment Land Use
2026
Polson, M., Reiman, A., Dillis, C., Hossack, J., LaRosa, S., Petersen-Rocknet, M., Sorgen, J., Owusu Sarfo, K.
This project, entitled “Licensed and Unlicensed Production Across Ban and Permit Jurisdictions,” aimed to assess the evolution of unlicensed cannabis cultivation since legalization.
Community Environment Land Use Policy
2026
Christopher Dillis, Michael Polson
Since the legalization of cannabis in California (USA), unlicensed cultivation has unevenly persisted. Spatial patterns are likely associated with a combination of physical and socio-political factors, though their relative importance remains unexplored.
Community Environment Land Use
Cannabis Impacts on Native Lands: On the Need for Inclusion of Native Perspectives in Extension Work
2025
Sorgen, J., LaRosa, S., Sowerwine, J., Butsic, V., Nelson, P., McCavour, M., Gaughen, S., Starkey, A.
Our researchers and Tribal Advisory Committee found widespread concern among Native communities about environmental impacts of cannabis cultivation. These concerns underscore the need to include Native communities in Extension activities across all region
Community Environment Land Use Policy Tribes
Final Report to DCC: Examining Tribal Sovereignty over Cannabis Permitting on Native Ancestral Lands
2025
Sorgen, J., LaRosa, S., Butsic, V., Nelson, P., Sowerwine, J.
This report explores our research findings and recommendations for policies that can help make the consultation process more supportive of Tribal sovereignty and more productive of results acceptable to both agencies and Tribes.
Environment Land Use Policy Tribes
2025
Sorgen, J., Nelson, P., LaRosa, S., Butsic, V., Gaughen, S., Starkey, A.M., McCavour, M., Geary, R., Sowerwine, J.
This study assessed the ongoing processes of Tribal consultation between Tribal and local governments around cannabis permitting, ultimately finding that California Assembly Bill 52 consultations are not consistently applied in land use decision making and that it faces several barriers to implementation
Land Use
2025
Sorgen, J., Nelson, P., Butsic, V., LaRosa, S., Gaughen, S., Crosby, E., Geary, R., Sowerwine, J.
This study analyzes key barriers to meaningful Tribal consultation through analysis of intergovernmental consultation policy and practice in California. We argue that these barriers trace back to asymmetrical power relations and legacies of colonial governance and exclusion, and we offer recommendations to strengthen Tribal-agency relations in cultural resource protection.
Community Tribes
2025
Martin J.V., Dillis C., Starrs G., Schell D., Grantham T.E., Butsic V.
We developed and deployed a state-wide survey of licensed outdoor producers to determine direct and indirect impacts of wildfire, as well as how producers
have responded to these threats.
Community Environment Land Use
A theory of geo-social marginalization: A case study of the licensed cannabis industry in California
2024
Dillis, C., Petersen-Rockney, M., Polson, M.
The marginalization of cannabis farms to the fringe areas of our state has created environmental conflict and negatively affects growers.
Environment Land Use
2024
Kulik, M.C., Lee, Y.O., Butsic, V., Cermak, T.L., Cooper, Z.D., Corva, D., Marcotte, T.D., Uskup, D.K., McKnight, T.R., Balla, A.
In 2023 cannabis researchers from across the University of California system presented their work to state agencies and policymakers.
Community Environment Land Use Policy
2024
Getz, C., Petersen-Rockney, M., Polson, M
Berkeley Cannabis Research Center
Although adult-use cannabis was legalized by state voters in 2016, more than two-thirds of localities have opted to ban its cultivation.
Community Policy
2023
Polson, M., Bodwitch, H., Biber, E., Butsic, V., Grantham, T.
There are many barriers to participation in California's regulated cannabis industry. Is there a way to achieve environmental objectives, farmer compliance, and an equitable transition away from illegal markets?
Environment Land Use Policy
2023
Parker-Shames, P.
Could Cannabis Help The American West Solve Its Thorniest Environmental Issues?
Community Environment Land Use
2023
Getz, C., Petersen-Rockney, M., Polson, M.
After investigating the causes and effects of local cannabis cultivation bans, we recommend policy change.
Policy
2023
Biber, E., Moira O’Neill, M., de Genova, H., Froehlich, D., Hossack, J., Park, T.
Social Science Research Network
Legal researchers analyzed local and state cannabis laws regulating outdoor and mixed-light licensed commercial cannabis cultivation.
Policy
2023
Polson, M., Bodwitch, H., Corva, D., Getz, C., Laudati, A., Petersen-Rockney, M., Runsten, D., Taylor, K.
Left unaddressed, smaller businesses and farms will likely collapse. Of all actors in the cannabis market, the impacts of this current moment rest most heavily upon smaller producers.
Community Land Use Policy
2023
Dillis, C., Butsic, V., Georgakakos, P., Portugal, E., Grantham, T.
Water use on unpermitted farms varies by watershed. With scenario modeling, we project the impacts of compliance with water extraction and off-stream storage.
Environment Policy
2023
Parker-Shames, P., Bodwitch, H., Brashares, J., Butsic, V.
Integrating socio-cultural data such as farmer interviews is critical for ecological models and understanding land use trends in cannabis production.
Community Environment Land Use
2023
Dillis, C., Butsic, V., Martin, J., Reiman, A., Starrs, G., Grantham, T.
With the largest legal cannabis market in the world, California's cannabis crops face increasing wildfire impacts, leading to substantial economic loss.
Environment
2022
Parker-Shames, P.
Doctoral Disseration
Phoebe Parker-Shames' dissertation, submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley.
Environment Land Use Policy
2022
Polson, M., Butsic, V., Dillis, C., de Genova, H., Grantham, T., Herrera, L.R., Hossack, J., Laudati, A., Martin, J.V., Parker-Shames, P., Petersen-Rockney, M., Sorgen, J., Starrs, G.
This report presents multiple pathways for consideration by state and local governments in their efforts to improve cannabis cultivation policy.
Community Environment Land Use Policy
2022
Dillis, C., Butsic, V., Moanga, D., Parker-Shames, P., Wartenberg, A., Grantham, T.
Where should we grow? Explore the vulnerability of California's cannabis agriculture to wildfire.
Environment Land Use
2021
Wartenberg, A. C., Holden, P. A., Bodwitch, H., Parker-Shames, P., Novotny, T., Harmon, T. C., & Butsic, V.
Explore environmental impacts of cannabis production and how evidence-based policy can reduce harms.
Environment
2021
Dillis, C., Butsic, V., Carah, J., Zipper, S.C. and Grantham, T.
Well water irrigates California’s top-producing cannabis farming regions. Why? What are the impacts?
Environment Policy
2021
Polson, M.
Explore how the War on Drugs shaped cannabis cultivation, public opinion and governance in the context of the U.S. versus the globe.
Policy
2021
Polson, M., Laudati, A., Sayre, N.
This report conveys the findings of a two-year study entitled “Transformation of Unregulated Cannabis
Cultivation Under Proposition 64.”
Land Use Policy
Industrializing cannabis? Socio-ecological implications of legalization and regulation in California
2021
Dillis, C., Bodwitch, H., Carah, J., Power, M., Sayre, N.
Will regulation of cannabis production lead to its industrialization? Can more sustainable models emerge for communities and the environment?
Community Environment
2021
Polson, M.
There are shades of gray between cannabis legalization and prohibition. Exploring this gradient illuminates how shifts in power structures impact the social reality of cannabis production and regulation, as observed in California.
Community Policy
2021
Polsen, M. and Bodwitch, H.
Should collective systems of resource sharing developed under cannabis prohibition be explicitly addressed via legalization, policy, and programs?
Community Policy Featured
2021
Dillis, C., Biber, E., Bodwitch, H., Butsic, V., Carah, J., Parker-Shames, P., Polson, M. and Grantham, T.
How has legalization shaped patterns of farm location, size, land ownership, and regulatory compliance in California?
Land Use Policy
2021
Parker-Shames, P., Choi, C., Butsic, V. , Green, D., Barry, B., Moriarty, K. , Levi, T., Brashares, J. S.
What are ecological impacts of cannabis legalization? To find out, we mapped the first season of legal cannabis farms in Josephine County, southern Oregon.
Environment Land Use
2021
Bodwitch, H., Polson , M., Biber, E., Hickey, G. M., Butsic, V.
Despite legalization, illicit cannabis production continues in California. Surveys reveal that small farmers face outsized burdens to compliance.
Community Policy Featured
2020
Polson, M.
As questions of cannabis legalization arise, exurbs struggle to differentiate the rural and urban.
Land Use Policy
2020
P. Parker-Shames, W. Xu, L. Rich, and J. Brashares
As legal cannabis agriculture expands in rural areas, wildlife will respond, but how? In the biodiverse region of Klamath-Siskiyou in southern Oregon, cameras positioned around small cannabis farms reveal individual responses of different species.
Environment Land Use
2020
Dillis, C., McIntee, C., Butsic, V., Le, L. Grady, K., & Grantham, T.
What cultivation practices help cannabis farmers store enough water to eliminate surface water diversions during California’s dry growing season?
Environment Policy
2019
Polson, M., Petersen-Rockney, M.
Siskiyou County, and many other counties in California, chose not to recognize cannabis cultivation as agriculture. This ethnographic study reveals the effects on parity in farmer rights and access to resources.
Community Environment Land Use Policy Featured
2019
Schwab, B., Wartenberg, A. & Butsic, V.
Are California’s cannabis regulations leading to industry consolidation and larger farms?
Land Use Policy Featured
2019
Wilson, H., Bodwitch, H., Carah, J., Daane, K., Getz C., Grantham, T. E., & Butsic, V.
Cannabis legalization opens opportunities to study and share best practices. Our survey of growers reveals starting points.
Environment Land Use Policy
2019
Bodwitch, H., Carah, J., Daane, K. M., Getz C., Grantham, T. E., Hickey, G. M., & Wilson, H.
Small cannabis farms are common. Permit licenses are not. A survey of grower incentives and economic implications of California's cannabis legalization.
Policy Featured
2019
Polson, M.
How have environmental concerns become cover for injecting exploitation, inequality and stigma into the policy and regulation of cannabis production?
Community Policy
2019
Valachovic, Y., Quinn-Davidson, L., Stackhouse, J. and Butsic, V.
What are the impacts of cannabis legalization on traditional rural livelihoods?
Land Use
2019
Dillis, C., Grantham, T., McIntee, C., McFadin, B. & Grady, K.
How does water use by cannabis farms affect streams in California's North Coast? Our study starts at the source.
Environment
2018
Polson, M.
Long before legalization, the use and distribution of marijuana was framed in neoliberal market terms.
Policy
2018
Butsic, V., Carah, J., Baumann, M., Stephens, C. & Brenner, J.C.
How does California’s rapid expansion of cannabis agriculture into "frontiers" of sensitive habitat compare to regulatory investments? What does this portend for global cannabis frontiers?
Land Use Policy Featured
2017
Wang, I.J., Brenner, J.C. and Butsic, V.
A booming cannabis industry expands agriculture into forest habitat. Science offers methods to understand impacts and shape policy.
Environment Land Use Policy
2017
Butsic, V., Schwab, B., Baumann, M. & Brenner, J.C.
What factors influence the location and size of cannabis cultivation sites?
Land Use
2017
Polson, M.
Explore marijuana’s pivotal role in defining the development of Humboldt County in rural North Coast, California.
Community Environment Policy
2016
Butsic, V. & Brenner, J.C.
Spatial patterns of cannabis grow sites reveal environmental impacts of an expanding industry.
Environment Land Use
2015
Polson, M.
Power shifts in the governance of medical marijuana redefine ‘community’ and territorial production.
Community Land Use
2015
Carah, J. K., Howard, J. K., Thompson, S.E., Short Gianotti, A. G., Bauer, S.D., Carlson, S. M., Dralle, D. N., Gabriel, M., Hulette, L., Johnson, B.J., Knight, C. A., Kupferberg, S., Martin, S., Naylor, R., and Power, M.
Investment in research, policy and governance can address negative impacts of cannabis cultivation to the environment.
Environment Policy