WALLULA -- Walla Walla Sheriff's deputies got a tip about about a massive marijuana grow.

 It's right near the paper mill, off highway 12.

Deputies tracked down the dope and destroyed it.

In the heart of the Boise Cascade Fibre farm, about 17 rows deep, grows a different kind of plant.

And people are not making paper with it.

Thousands of marijuana plants were harvesting right in the middle of the forest until some farm workers stumbled across it.

 That's when the Walla Walla sheriffs office came in to do some of their own harvesting.

They raided more than a million dollars worth of weed.

Sheriff's deputies from Walla Walla, Columbia County and Garfield county and a narcotics unit from Walla Walla P.D. got a tip about a massive marijuana grow.

"It's pot that's off the street," Walla Walla Sheriff Sgt. Gary Bolster said. "It's a major problem for us. Marijuana is going for a lot of money on the street -- for premium marijuana on the street -- and it's kind of the basis of our drug problem."

Recently, deputies caught two growers on an undercover camera working in the fibre fields.

Thursday, crews came in to clear it all out.

They sniffed out plenty of plants, as high as ten feet tall.

And these narcotics were nurtured.

Water was piped in.

So crews ripped it from the root, bundled it all up and carted it away.

"There's a lot of money to be made," Bolster said. "I've paid as much as $320 an ounce. The marijuana we harvested today on the street worth a million and a half or more."

There's so much money to be made, police often stumble upon full camps right in the middle of the grow.

People set up their tents, sleeping bags, kitchens, and often come packing heat as a way to protect their plants.

"They're dangerous individuals," Bolster said. "They tend to their plants, fertilize it and protect it."

Deputies say growers are getting more diligent at hiding their harvests, making smaller plants and stronger strains to hide from overhead fly-overs and raids.

"It's outside people coming in and makes it difficult to catch them," Bolster said.

In this raid, they managed to pull about a thousand pot plants, worth a million bucks.

They pulled about eight times in the county that for the year.

Statewide, deputies pulled more than a quarter of a million plants, totally more than $250 million.

What do they do with it all the weed when they're done?

They don't smoke it.

It goes up in smoke.

 Authorities burn all 250,000 plants.

Sheriff's deputies have arrested a few of the growers this year.

 They admit, they're hard to catch because they basically have to be caught with the plants red-handed.

 But they're still looking to track down those guys you saw in the video.

 To get a better look at the cannabis culprits , or if you have any tips, call the Washington State Patrol Marijuana Hotline number at 1-800-388-grow(4769).

Or you can check out their web site is http://www.wsp.wa.gov/crime/hotline.htm