Lea Brown, supervisor at Camp Pendleton’s Recycling Center, couldn’t temper her enthusiasm about the importance of recycling as much of the bases 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 Marine Corps was the first to recycle brass casings that accumulate at its target ranges. It has been made a requirement by all military branches by The Department of Defense.
Brown pointed out rows upon rows of 6,000-pound bins that were now filled with.50 caliber brass cases, which Marines had collected after firing round after round during 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 collected 5.6 million shells.
All that brass is sold at $3.18 per pound. The proceeds go to environmental projects. Some of the proceeds go to youth programs, holiday celebrations, and special events for the Marines and sailors.
The recycling center diverted 6.8 Million pounds of potential waste through all its efforts in the first quarter of 2021. Camp Pendleton accumulated 8.1 million pounds worth of recyclable material in 2020.
The base was awarded a Keep California Beautiful Recycling Hero Award last week. This nonprofit is 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. This award was given to the base’s 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 Californias only free-flowing river.
Maj. Kevin Stephensen, a Marine Corps spokesperson, stated that the Marines balance protecting natural resources with training requirements that are vital for national defense. They focus on environmental restoration and pollution prevention.
Two areas of the base are off-limits for training.
Capt. Michael Kenney, Director of Marine Corps Installations Command Facilities talks about some of the innovative energy systems and other systems that the bases use. “The Marine Corps is investing in a multitude of new technologies.
On a recent visit to Camp Pendletons Environmental Security Division, biologists spoke about endangered and threatened species and animals they monitor.
85 scientists, conservation law enforcement officers and game wardens make up the largest division on military installations in the country.
The department’s role is to oversee military training while focusing on the proper management of the bases 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 than 100,000-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 inch-long crustacean listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“These are an important protein source for migratory birds,” he said.
According to him, coastal development has destroyed about 90% of Southern California’s fairy-shrimp habitat. However, restoration efforts at Camp Pendleton are ongoing.
The base was established in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and California State Parks System launched the multimillion dollar rehabilitation of 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.
Training is allowed at most beaches, but units will need to adjust their schedules based on the breeding habits of shore and sea birds such as the endangered California leasttern and 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-by-side with military training and from March 1 to Sept. 15, it’s mostly off-limits for training.”
In 1970, the endangered tern was declared and military leaders began to meet with the U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife to discuss how they could continue training while protecting birds and marine mammals. Over the years, regulations were developed.
“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 out a nest of three plover eggs in a rocky area near the ramp for heavy amphibious vehicles. To draw attention to the nest, a female plover ran nearby, making her wing appear broken.
The vehicles can use a small stretch on the beach to reach the ocean. However, they are not permitted to veer away from the ramp and go north along the shoreline into soft beach sand for three miles. Marines who are training in small groups are permitted to walk along the waterline.
At least two conservation law officers are present on the beaches at all hours to monitor the movements. There is ample signage to warn those who stay at the nearby Del Mar Resort which is open to active and retired military. Gordon Butler, one enforcement officer, said that each violation could result in a $250 fine.
“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. Capt. Kenneth Kendrick is the commanding officer for the Amphibian Assault School and trains troops on the beaches. He stated that he ensures his Marines are familiar with the conservation requirements on 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 its 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.’”
