O.C. Register: Nature vs. Marines at Camp Pendleton

[question everything]

Monday, October 24, 2005

Nature vs. Marines at Camp Pendleton

At Camp Pendleton, endangered flora and fauna are waging a turf battle with Marines for invaluable habitat.

By GWENDOLYN DRISCOLL
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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In Southern California's shrinking wild landscape, Pendleton's 200 square miles of largely undeveloped land is an ironic reminder that burgeoning tract homes, strip malls and superhighways can be more deadly to flora and fauna than the weaponry of war.

An annual USGS survey recently indicated that one-third of the estimated 3,000 least Bell's vireos in existence make their home at Pendleton, as do almost all of the 2,000-or-fewer existing Pacific pocket mice. Steelhead trout swim in the base's San Mateo Creek, brown pelicans skim 17 miles of coastline, and rare plant species, such as San Diego button celery, sprout around seasonal pools.

It is also a home where the not-so-endangered buffalo roam. A pack of 100 or more bison donated in the 1970s by the San Diego Zoo spend their days annoying Marines, who are prohibited from using artillery when the large animals wander onto firing ranges.

Nationwide, more than 300 federally listed threatened or endangered species make their home in military lands and waters, according to an October National Wildlife Federation article and action report. That number is more than exist throughout the entire national park system, which has nearly three times more land, the report said. Such endangered species that populate Camp Pendleton, like the least Bell's vireo, test the base's chief prerogative: to be a training ground for war.

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http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_729544.php




The least Bell's vireo is one of 18 endangered or threatened species found at Camp Pendleton.

[Ernesto]

1. I spent over a year of my youth @ Pendleton (late '60s)

Today, it has to be some of the most desirable real estate in America. I think it could be preserved indefinitely. Where else, on the west coast, could we put the Marine Corps?