A spotter plane flying near West Fork Evans Creek Road identified the marijuana gardens growing in a clearing and partly under the forest canopy in northern Jackson County, according to sheriff’s deputy Rich Rullamas.

Deputies set up video cameras to get the plants’ caretaker on film. Deputies arrested Mitchell Shane York — a 31-year-old transient — while he was watering the two patches of plants.

York was lodged without bail in the Jackson County Jail on charges of possessing and manufacturing marijuana. There also were warrants charging him with resisting arrest, escape and probation violation.

Deputies harvested 104 plants — ranging in size from 3 to 7 feet tall — from two one-acre parcels. They also seized approximately an ounce of dried marijuana.

The marijuana bust was the first in several years for the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, Rullamas said. Large marijuana gardens are becoming more scarce as growers plant numerous small plots to avoid their discovery, he said.

Deputies first talked to York last month after they noticed a campsite in the area. York gave deputies a false name, which they discovered through DMV records did not belong to him.