On Wednesday, a helicopter buzzed over the rugged hills of Mendocino National Forest and lowered five narcotics agents dressed in green fatigues and armed with guns, clippers and machetes. Under the bright blue sky, the crew began to cut down thousands of marijuana plants that were flourishing with the help of an irrigation system in a remote section of the forest in Tehama County.

It was, in short, a typical summer day in California.

For the past 28 years, the state’s Campaign Against Marijuana Planting has been a predictable rite of summer. Run by the California attorney general and financed in part by the federal government, it deploys “eradicators” to aide sheriffs and park rangers in trimming the state’s huge marijuana crop. Crews have cut down more than 20 million plants over the years, including 4.3 million last year.

But this may be CAMP’s last summer. The state budget signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last month eliminates its financing as part of the widespread cuts to programs in law enforcement, courts and social services.

“At this point I don’t think we know what would happen to CAMP next year,” said Lynda Gledhill, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Kamala Harris.