Crowdog
03-26-2002, 07:40 PM
Marines receive approval for two-week exercise in desert
ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 26, 2002
LOS ANGELES – The Marine Corps has received approval to use a swath of desert for a two-week exercise, but environmentalists are worried about the potential impact to tortoises and plants.
The Bureau of Land Management on Monday approved the exercise, dubbed Desert Scimitar '02, which will test the Marine Corps' ability to move large numbers of troops and vehicles over terrain similar to the Middle East while maintaining necessary communications.
An estimated 600 vehicles and 2,700 Marines will be involved the approximately 175-mile trek from Twentynine Palms to Yuma, Ariz.
"The BLM is proud to provide the public lands for use in these efforts (toward) maintaining our nation's security," said Jim Kenna, the agency's Palm Springs-South Coast field officer manager.
Restrictions imposed by the federal land bureau and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service require that the Marine Corps ensure that desert tortoises and other vulnerable reptiles and plants are not run over by Humveees, armored personnel carriers, 55-ton trucks and other military vehicles.
The Marines will not be allowed to conduct any maneuvers at night and can't venture off established roads during the exercise set for April 22 to May 3.
Dust kicked up by the 600 vehicles may prove harmful to plants and animals in the desert, said Daniel Patterson, a desert biologist with the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity.
Desert tortoises are known to have a delicate respiratory system. New research also suggests that desert plants are more vulnerable to dust than previously thought, Patterson said.
In a related development, a team of researchers at the University of Redlands on Monday announced the receipt of a $4 million grant from the Department of Defense to study the desert tortoise in the Mojave Desert.
The Army has proposed expanding its Fort Irwin National Training Center in the high desert, but environmentalists have disagreed with the Pentagon on the impact expansion would have on the tortoise.
"Our role is to provide good science," said Jill S. Heaton, desert tortoise project manager at the university. "We're an outside player, a third party with no stake in which way it goes."
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FYI, Daniel Patterson, Center for Biological Diversity is the same group that closed a huge chunk of Glamis and is part of the El Dorado Forest lawsuit.....
Crowdog
www.crowley-offroad.com
ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 26, 2002
LOS ANGELES – The Marine Corps has received approval to use a swath of desert for a two-week exercise, but environmentalists are worried about the potential impact to tortoises and plants.
The Bureau of Land Management on Monday approved the exercise, dubbed Desert Scimitar '02, which will test the Marine Corps' ability to move large numbers of troops and vehicles over terrain similar to the Middle East while maintaining necessary communications.
An estimated 600 vehicles and 2,700 Marines will be involved the approximately 175-mile trek from Twentynine Palms to Yuma, Ariz.
"The BLM is proud to provide the public lands for use in these efforts (toward) maintaining our nation's security," said Jim Kenna, the agency's Palm Springs-South Coast field officer manager.
Restrictions imposed by the federal land bureau and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service require that the Marine Corps ensure that desert tortoises and other vulnerable reptiles and plants are not run over by Humveees, armored personnel carriers, 55-ton trucks and other military vehicles.
The Marines will not be allowed to conduct any maneuvers at night and can't venture off established roads during the exercise set for April 22 to May 3.
Dust kicked up by the 600 vehicles may prove harmful to plants and animals in the desert, said Daniel Patterson, a desert biologist with the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity.
Desert tortoises are known to have a delicate respiratory system. New research also suggests that desert plants are more vulnerable to dust than previously thought, Patterson said.
In a related development, a team of researchers at the University of Redlands on Monday announced the receipt of a $4 million grant from the Department of Defense to study the desert tortoise in the Mojave Desert.
The Army has proposed expanding its Fort Irwin National Training Center in the high desert, but environmentalists have disagreed with the Pentagon on the impact expansion would have on the tortoise.
"Our role is to provide good science," said Jill S. Heaton, desert tortoise project manager at the university. "We're an outside player, a third party with no stake in which way it goes."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FYI, Daniel Patterson, Center for Biological Diversity is the same group that closed a huge chunk of Glamis and is part of the El Dorado Forest lawsuit.....
Crowdog
www.crowley-offroad.com