Approximately 18,000 marijuana plants have been eradicated across Kern County over the past two days, according to the Kern Co. Sheriff's Department.

The plants were found in the Hart Flat area, Piute Mountains, and near Arvin in five separate grow operations, officials said.

READ THE PRESS RELEASE FROM KERN COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT:

Over the past two days officers from the Kern County Sheriff’s Office STC-HIDTA unit, with the assistance of officers from Cal-MMET, CAMP (Campaign against Marijuana Planting), and the Kern County Probation Department eradicated five large scale marijuana grows in east Kern.

Over the past several weeks officers have been conducting investigations into illegal marijuana cultivations on public and private lands. These five marijuana cultivations were located in the Hart Flat area east of Bakersfield, the Piute Mountains in the area of Walker Basin, and in the foothills south east of Arvin.

Over the last two days these investigations reached a point where search warrants were issued and served on five non related locations. During the service of the search warrants there were approximately 18,000 Marijuana plants eradicated.

These illegal Marijuana grows continue to be a problem in Kern County and have a devastating effect on the environment. Often times water is diverted that is relied on for agriculture and land is cleared and destroyed to make room for the plants. These grows also generate a large amount of debris and in some cases banned chemical fertilizers and pesticides have been found to have been used in the growing of these plants.