In many cases, marijuana plantations are just a few hundred yards from popular tourist areas. As a result, many vacationers are faced with armed combat as Forest Service rangers conduct raids to catch the growers.

One July morning at the Sugar Pine Recreation Area in California's Tahoe National Forest, for instance, rangers arrested a Mexican laborer keeping watch over a marijuana plantation as campers slept in lakeside tents.

"We're good at jungle warfare," said Laura Mark, a Forest Service investigator. "We're the ninjas of the woods."

Armed encounters have been commonplace in California's national parks since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which led to tightened security along U.S. borders. Since it's more difficult to transport drugs into the United States, Mexican traffickers are growing sprawling marijuana farms in America's national parks.

"We have a tremendous influx of Mexican growers," said Ross Butler, a special agent for the federal Bureau of Land Management. "They are sophisticated. They have guns. And we don't know much about who they are."

Some marijuana plantations unfold over several hundred acres and have as many as 50,000 plants. According to law-enforcement officials, 420,000 marijuana plants with a street value of $1.5 billion were removed from California's 18 federal forests last year, a tenfold increase from 1994.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said the marijuana growers are posing a danger to tourists, especially hunters. The growers often mistake innocent tourists for thieves or police.

"If you are a hunter, a fisherman or a backpacker, it can be dangerous," said Michael Delaney, who oversees marijuana cases for the DEA in Northern California. "There's a safety factor for everyone who is out there."

Because of limited resources, park rangers are unable to stop the marijuana growers. Currently, there are only seven drug-enforcement agents available to police the 20 million acres of federal forests in California.

"This is a huge criminal enterprise, and we have so few resources to fight it," said Mark. "There are more growers than we know about or can deal with. We pick off a couple. The rest get away."

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