MORGAN — Two bow hunters looking for elk stumbled upon a field of marijuana plants while hiking over mountain terrain in Morgan County.

Weber Morgan Narcotics Strike Force and the Drug Enforcement Agency removed 1,238 plants capable of producing roughly 1,400 pounds of marijuana from a slope near Mormon Flats. Officials estimated a harvest of the plants would be worth more than $1.4 million.

The discovery was the third of its kind in Utah within the past 16 days. DEA officials cite an increase in local marijuana farming to growing pressure on drug traffickers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

"We don't have any suspects at this time," said Lt. Darin Parke of the Weber Morgan Narcotics Strike Force. "The (land) owner isn't a suspect; he didn't know anything about it."

In an effort to encourage more hunters and hikers to come forward with information on finding marijuana farms while in the woods, the narcotics agency is rewarding the two hunters with a total of $1,238 — a dollar for each marijuana plant found.

Farmers of the illegal operation piped water to the small plot from a spring about one-quarter of a mile away in an unburied half-inch plastic pipe. "It's quite established," Parke said. "I would estimate that it's been in operation for at least a couple years."

Officials uncovered and dismantled a field of marijuana plants in Tooele County on Aug. 26 worth about $9 million. A couple days later, in Wayne County, 20,000 plants were found worth between $25 million and $60 million.

— Jacob Hancock