Crowdog
12-31-2001, 08:36 PM
More Center for Biological Diversity crap!! :mad3:
Published Friday, December 28, 2001
War games may threaten Mojave Desert species
Fort Irwin expansion plans have been met with contention over a federally protected tortoise and plant
By Leon Drouin Keith
ASSOCIATED PRESS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FORT IRWIN -- Soldiers train here to face the enemy, but to some they are the enemy.
The Army wages the biggest war games in the free world on this 643,000-acre Mojave Desert base. Earlier this month Congress voted to set aside 110,000 acres that may eventually be added to the base for tank training.
Environmentalists and biologists contend that expansion will decimate two federally protected species: the desert tortoise and the Lane Mountain milkvetch.
So before the land can be converted for training, the Army has to comply with all environmental laws, approve money for relocation, recovery or further studies, and allocate funds to buy 12,000 acres of private land included in the 110,000 acres.
At the earliest, the Army will be able to use the new land in 2004, said Tim Reischl, a Charis Corp. official serving as program manager for the expansion plan.
Because of the war on terrorism, environmentalists are being careful not to disparage the Army's intentions, even though the military has not cited the war as a reason for accelerated expansion efforts.
"We're not against the Army at all, but they've got to be able to continue training in a way that doesn't destroy the landscape," said Daniel Patterson, desert biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity.
The battles at the National Training Center -- the only place in the world the Army can conduct on-the-field training of a full brigade of as many as 5,500 troops -- amount to the biggest and most militarily useful game of laser tag on the planet. Every virtual and real bullet, bomb and mortar round is tracked, recorded and analyzed so the soldier who fired it learns from the experience.
Environmentalists say the training is not virtual enough, however, for the desert tortoise.
"Smoke (from tank training) is a big problem for the plant life out there because coating all the plants with heavy dust inhibits growth, which reduces the quality of the habitat. We also worry about direct kills of the tortoise, its burrows and the vegetation it depends on for its livelihood," he said.
The new land, about 110 miles northeast of Los Angeles, is also home to two-thirds of the known population of an endangered plant, the Lane Mountain milkvetch.
Center spokesman Capt. David Isaac said an extensive environmental review to comply with the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act has already begun.
"We think they are going to have a hard time expanding Fort Irwin and complying with all the nation's environmental laws," Patterson said.
Since 1982, more than 1.2 million soldiers have honed their skills at the National Training Center.
When troops arrive for training, the base becomes the fractious land of Tierra del Diablo. The soldiers are deployed to help defend the breakaway Republic of Mojave from the assaults of Krasnovian and Pahrumphian forces who -- because they're based at Fort Irwin -- know every rock and crevice of the desert battlefield.
Mock terrorists, protesters and government officials add additional challenges to the conflict.
Each brigade trains first against Fort Irwin's resident opposition force, then against pop-up targets in live-fire exercises.
Fort Irwin proved its worth during the gulf war, but soldiers need to be prepared for tougher combat, Reischl said.
"Nobody's going to fight us on the open desert; they're going to fight us where they can hug us close and take away our technological advantages," Reischl said.
The Army wants to expand to the east and southwest to create a flank where troops will have to face fronts on two terrains. Right now the war games occur primarily through the middle of the base.
Without the expansion, only about 55 percent of the base is available for training infantry because 90,000 acres are set aside for a bombing range and there is a deep-space tracking facility.
Military installations occupy about 25 percent of the 7.2 million acres of tortoise habitat in the western Mojave Desert, environmentalists say, so more is unwarranted.
Patterson said the Army could use its bombing range for infantry training, but Maj. Rob Ali, Fort Irwin public affairs officer, said getting rid of unexploded ordnance would be a dangerous job costing about $200 million.
That might be a bargain compared to tortoise protection projections.
During the spring, a panel of desert tortoise experts estimated it would cost more than $400 million in land preservation and other measures to help the tortoise recover.
Biologists Kristin Berry of the U.S. Geological Survey and Ray Bransfield of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said they doubted that even that massive expenditure would make up for the loss of tortoise habitat if the expansion is allowed.
Bransfield said researchers don't fully understand the reasons for tortoise declines in the western Mojave, where the areas Berry has monitored for about 30 years have seen populations drop by nearly 90 percent.
In addition to soldiers and tanks, the tortoise and milkvetch do daily battle with disease, cars, off-road vehicles, livestock, non-native plants, development and ravens.
Published Friday, December 28, 2001
War games may threaten Mojave Desert species
Fort Irwin expansion plans have been met with contention over a federally protected tortoise and plant
By Leon Drouin Keith
ASSOCIATED PRESS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FORT IRWIN -- Soldiers train here to face the enemy, but to some they are the enemy.
The Army wages the biggest war games in the free world on this 643,000-acre Mojave Desert base. Earlier this month Congress voted to set aside 110,000 acres that may eventually be added to the base for tank training.
Environmentalists and biologists contend that expansion will decimate two federally protected species: the desert tortoise and the Lane Mountain milkvetch.
So before the land can be converted for training, the Army has to comply with all environmental laws, approve money for relocation, recovery or further studies, and allocate funds to buy 12,000 acres of private land included in the 110,000 acres.
At the earliest, the Army will be able to use the new land in 2004, said Tim Reischl, a Charis Corp. official serving as program manager for the expansion plan.
Because of the war on terrorism, environmentalists are being careful not to disparage the Army's intentions, even though the military has not cited the war as a reason for accelerated expansion efforts.
"We're not against the Army at all, but they've got to be able to continue training in a way that doesn't destroy the landscape," said Daniel Patterson, desert biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity.
The battles at the National Training Center -- the only place in the world the Army can conduct on-the-field training of a full brigade of as many as 5,500 troops -- amount to the biggest and most militarily useful game of laser tag on the planet. Every virtual and real bullet, bomb and mortar round is tracked, recorded and analyzed so the soldier who fired it learns from the experience.
Environmentalists say the training is not virtual enough, however, for the desert tortoise.
"Smoke (from tank training) is a big problem for the plant life out there because coating all the plants with heavy dust inhibits growth, which reduces the quality of the habitat. We also worry about direct kills of the tortoise, its burrows and the vegetation it depends on for its livelihood," he said.
The new land, about 110 miles northeast of Los Angeles, is also home to two-thirds of the known population of an endangered plant, the Lane Mountain milkvetch.
Center spokesman Capt. David Isaac said an extensive environmental review to comply with the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act has already begun.
"We think they are going to have a hard time expanding Fort Irwin and complying with all the nation's environmental laws," Patterson said.
Since 1982, more than 1.2 million soldiers have honed their skills at the National Training Center.
When troops arrive for training, the base becomes the fractious land of Tierra del Diablo. The soldiers are deployed to help defend the breakaway Republic of Mojave from the assaults of Krasnovian and Pahrumphian forces who -- because they're based at Fort Irwin -- know every rock and crevice of the desert battlefield.
Mock terrorists, protesters and government officials add additional challenges to the conflict.
Each brigade trains first against Fort Irwin's resident opposition force, then against pop-up targets in live-fire exercises.
Fort Irwin proved its worth during the gulf war, but soldiers need to be prepared for tougher combat, Reischl said.
"Nobody's going to fight us on the open desert; they're going to fight us where they can hug us close and take away our technological advantages," Reischl said.
The Army wants to expand to the east and southwest to create a flank where troops will have to face fronts on two terrains. Right now the war games occur primarily through the middle of the base.
Without the expansion, only about 55 percent of the base is available for training infantry because 90,000 acres are set aside for a bombing range and there is a deep-space tracking facility.
Military installations occupy about 25 percent of the 7.2 million acres of tortoise habitat in the western Mojave Desert, environmentalists say, so more is unwarranted.
Patterson said the Army could use its bombing range for infantry training, but Maj. Rob Ali, Fort Irwin public affairs officer, said getting rid of unexploded ordnance would be a dangerous job costing about $200 million.
That might be a bargain compared to tortoise protection projections.
During the spring, a panel of desert tortoise experts estimated it would cost more than $400 million in land preservation and other measures to help the tortoise recover.
Biologists Kristin Berry of the U.S. Geological Survey and Ray Bransfield of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said they doubted that even that massive expenditure would make up for the loss of tortoise habitat if the expansion is allowed.
Bransfield said researchers don't fully understand the reasons for tortoise declines in the western Mojave, where the areas Berry has monitored for about 30 years have seen populations drop by nearly 90 percent.
In addition to soldiers and tanks, the tortoise and milkvetch do daily battle with disease, cars, off-road vehicles, livestock, non-native plants, development and ravens.