Marines have a duty to care for environs
Recycling and wildland maintenance are part of Camp Pendleton's routine
Lea Brown, a supervisor at Camp Pendleton’s Recycling Center, couldn’t temper her enthusiasm about the importance of recycling as much of the base’s waste as possible.
“I’m looking and researching new ways every day,” she said as she walked across the yard showing off the multiple ways scrap metal, cardboard, even old tracks off of vehicles are collected and kept from landfills. “We actually take pride in our work.”
The base was the first in the Marine Corps to recycle the brass casings that pile up at its many target ranges. The Department of Defense has made it a requirement across the military branches.
Brown pointed out rows of 6,000-pound bins now filled with .50 caliber brass casings collected by Marines after firing round after round in training.
“We get brass every day,” she said. “I even come in on the weekend if a unit is training so they can drop their brass.”
Since September, the center has collected 5.6 million shells.
All that brass is sold at $3.18 a pound; the proceeds go back into environmental projects. Some goes to funding youth programs, special events and holiday celebrations for the Marines and sailors and the 38,000 families who live on base.
Through all of its efforts combined, the recycling center diverted 6.8 million pounds of potential waste in the first three quarters of 2021. In 2020, Camp Pendleton collected 8.1 million pounds of recyclable material.
Last week, it was announced the base received a Recycling Hero Award from Keep California Beautiful, a nonprofit dedicated to alternative waste management, beautification and community outreach. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also recently recognized the base’s air station with an environmental quality award for its partnership with the Carlsbad office of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Office on a runway project.
In 2020, the base’s conservation law enforcement section was named the National Military Fish and Wildlife Association’s Team of the Year and the Secretary of the Navy’s Conservation Team of the Year. The award was given for its innovative deer management program and natural resource enforcement.
The nearly 126,000-acre base is one of the Department of Defense’s busiest installations, but it is still 95% undeveloped wildland and home to more than 1,000 species of plants, fish and animals, including a herd of 85 bison.
The Pacific pocket mouse, the Stephens’s kangaroo rat, fairy shrimp and the arroyo toad are among the 19 endangered and threatened animal and plant species found in its diverse ecosystem, which includes 18 miles of beaches, natural bluffs, mesas, canyons, mountains and Southern California’s only free-flowing river.
The Marines balance protecting those natural resources with training needs that are vital to national defense, focusing on pollution prevention, conservation and environmental restoration, said Maj. Kevin Stephensen, a Marine Corps spokesperson.
There are two areas on the base that are completely off-limits to any training.
“We all have an important role to play in sustaining our planet and ensuring the long-term security of our nation,” said Capt. Michael Kenney, director of Marine Corps Installations Command Facilities, talking about some of the innovative energy and other systems the bases use. “The Marine Corps is investing in a multitude of new technologies.”
Recently, on a tour of the base, biologists who work for Camp Pendleton’s Environmental Security Division talked about the endangered and threatened plants and animals they watch over.
The division of 85 scientists, conservation law enforcement officials and game wardens is the largest of its kind on military installations in the nation.
The department’s role is to oversee military training while focusing on the proper management of the base’s cultural and environmental resources, spending $4 million to $7 million a year on its resource management efforts, said Alisa Zych, the department’s branch head.
Jim Asmus, who oversees the base’s more-than100,000-acre upland section, toured through multiple acres near base housing set aside for conservation. Among the grasses were evidence of vernal pools, home to the Lindahl’s fairy shrimp, a roughly inchlong crustacean listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“These are an important protein source for migratory birds,” he said.
Coastal development has wiped out about 90% of the fairy shrimp’s habitat in Southern California, he said, but at Camp Pendleton, restoration efforts are underway.
A few years ago, the base, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and California State Parks system, launched the multimillion-dollar rehabilitation of about 15 acres of fairy shrimp habitat on a bluff overlooking San Onofre.
“Those projects also created new and improved habitat for listed vernal pools plants, including spreading navarretia and a newly introduced population of California Orcutt grass,” Asmus said. “We have moved into the second phase of management that includes more years of weed treatment, supplementing vernal pool adapted plants, and supplementing rare plants in the upland areas vernal pools.”
Just south along the San Onofre Bluffs lie the undisturbed miles of Camp Pendleton’s beaches; it’s the most extensive undeveloped shoreline in Southern California.
Most beaches allow training, but units are required to adjust their schedule based on breeding habits of sea and shore birds, such as the endangered California least tern and the Western snowy plover.
“Right here we have nesting areas,” Katrina Rocheleau-Murbock, the base’s beach biologist, said as she stood near a ramp used by amphibious combat vehicles from the nearby battalion and school. “They are side-byside with military training and from March 1 to Sept. 15, it’s mostly off-limits for training.”
In 1970, the tern was listed as endangered and military leaders started sitting down with the U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife on how they could continue to train while protecting birds and marine mammals, developing regulations over the years.
“That’s the main reason we have a healthy population of 100 pairs of plovers and 600 pairs of terns here on base,” Rocheleau-Murbock said, adding that in 1970, there were just 600 terns left in the entire population. “The recovery effort has definitely been working. The biggest threat is habitat loss and there are not a lot of untouched areas where the birds can nest.”
Rocheleau-Murbock pointed to a plover nest of three eggs laid in a rocky area of a cordoned off campground not far from the ramp used by the
heavy amphibious vehicles. A female plover ran around nearby, making her wing look broken to draw attention from the nest.
The vehicles may use a small stretch of beach to go to and from the ocean, but they are not to veer from the ramp and enter soft beach sand for about a 3-mile stretch north along the shoreline. Marines training in small numbers are allowed to walk along the waterline.
At least two conservation law enforcement officers are on the beaches at all times to monitor the movements and there is also plenty of signage to warn away anyone staying at the nearby Del Mar Resort that is open to active duty and retired military. Each violation of the space faces a $250 federal fine, said Gordon Butler, one of the enforcement officers.
“When we see a unit doing something wrong, we approach them and get them to halt what they’re doing,” he said, adding it’s been several years since a bird was harmed — a hovercraft ran over a plover nest.
“Once they find out the area’s off-limits, they’re pretty receptive,” he said.
Capt. Kenneth Kendrick, commanding officer of the Amphibian Assault School, trains troops along the beaches regularly. He said he always makes sure his Marines know the conservation requirements in place across the base.
“Everyone knows the snowy plover — the puffy little white bird — you make sure you give it a wide berth. It’s super restricted,” he said of the briefing the Marines are given. “We have a special shrimp and it’s in the 62 Area and the buffalo, they’re wherever they feel like being. I tell them, ‘If you see them just stop, let them do their thing and then you can resume.’”