The State appeals from an order of the Superior Court of Glynn County granting Michael Clark’s motion to suppress marijuana which was found in and seized from a densely wooded swamp area outside the curtilage of Clark’s home. Because the superior court’s order was apparently premised upon an incorrect determination that the “open fields” doctrine does not apply to densely wooded, swampy areas; because the “open fields” doctrine permitted the officers in this case to be in the place where they initially observed the contraband; and because no warrant is required to seize contraband located in an “open field” outside the curtilage of an individual’s residence, we reverse the judgment of the court below. Glynn-Brunswick Narcotics Enforcement Officer T. Wright received information from an anonymous source that Clark was growing and selling marijuana at his residence located at 365 Emanuel Church Road in Glynn County. Wright testified at the hearing on the motion to suppress that he and several other narcotics officers drove to a location “in a wooded section down the road from Mr. Clark’s residence and walked quite a distance through the woods to an area until we could see through the woods the roof of Mr. Clark’s residence.” The area through which the officers walked was, all woods. No fences or any type of boundary marked. . . . Through the pine trees, a swamp, wooded area. . . . At least half a mile. Maybe even a mile. . . . We walked a zig-zag through —and had to go, like I say, through a swamp and also through a densely wooded area to get there. Clark, himself described the area behind his mobile home as “it’s like a swamp. In the back, it’s got cypress stumps.” Photographs in the record confirm the above descriptions.
The area immediately surrounding Clark’s mobile home was grass and was “bush hogged” up to a tree/brush line marking the beginning of pine woods interspersed with six to eight foot tall brush; a narrow trail had been hacked with a bush ax a short distance into the brush and pines, “but it just stopped.” Wright testified that the officers obtained a vantage point “at least 40 to 50 feet from any type of mowed or cut grass.” From this vantage point in the woods, the officers saw ahead of them in plain view a marijuana plant growing in the woods outside the maintained area around Clark’s residence. A green painted P.V.C. pipe was close to the plant. Officer Wright testified that both the plant and the pipe were far enough into the brush that “you couldn’t see any of the residence from where it was.” The P.V.C. pipe was searched, and marijuana was found in it.
