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November 4, 2005

Military Bases Benefit Birds

There's been a lot of press lately on the federal budget and the Department of Defense's need to perform some military base closures. I've followed this with some interest - is it a sign of the defense budget being cut? Is it a revamp to make the DoD more efficient? What I hadn't even considered is the environmental impact of closing bases.

Military bases have been built in just about every kind of setting from along the seashore of Monterey at Fort Ord to the deserts of Southwest. There's even the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, nestled in the Sierras, which acts as one of the most remote and isolated posts. However, all military bases share one important feature: they generally keep the public out and most military activities take place far inside the borders, buffered by acres and acres of land. Land that is not compromised by the mandates that generally apply to federal land - like grazing and logging rights. This undisturbed land is a haven for wildlife, supporting hundreds of federally listed threatened or endangered species.

Military personnel are forced to maintain the delicate balance between using the land wisely for training purposes without disrupting the fragile ecosystems.

Nationwide, more than 300 federally listed threatened or endangered species inhabit military lands and waters—more than are found throughout the entire national park system, which has nearly three times more land.

...

Yet the Pentagon rarely gets kudos for housing such a diversity of wildlife. Indeed, the relationship between the military and most environmental organizations has tended to be acrimonious. In one recent battle, the Defense Department two years ago asked Congress for an exemption to the Endangered Species Act’s (ESA) mandate to establish critical habitat for federally listed species. The department claimed that designating critical habitat on military lands would potentially interfere with training, and therefore the nation’s readiness for war.

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Success is due in part to habitat availability and restrictions on public access, as well as avoiding training when and where the birds are nesting. Yet base personnel also have mounted aggressive conservation actions, from grading beaches and removing trash and vegetation from nesting sites to installing protective fences and shelters for hatchlings. Their efforts have paid off.

...

But success has come at a price ... populations are spilling over onto sections of beach considered critical for training. So far, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has given Navy officials permission to discourage nesting on some beaches and to collect and incubate in captivity eggs that end up in training zones.

More At: Bases Loaded - National Wildlife Magazine

When bases are closed permanently, the land can become neglected and vulnerable to developers, creating situations just like those my British friend, the Badger Charmer, has to deal with.

Posted by sorsha at November 4, 2005 2:58 PM