With the sun sinking fast over the saltmarsh, Chris Eberly had barely half an hour to complete hismission. Armed with high-powered binoculars and a spottingscope, he hurried down a trail that headed toward the TijuanaRiver just south of San Diego. Eberly, an East Coast-basedornithologist and avid birder, was hoping to spot—or at leasthear—the endangered light-footed clapper rail, a secretivewading bird found only in Southern California’s increasingly scarce saltwater estu-aries, including this one in Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge.

Hearing a sound—a clattering kek, kek, kek, kek, kek—Eberly froze. “That’s it!”he shouted, pointing to a dense clump of spiky cordgrass.

More striking than the rail’s call, though, was another, even louder sound, whichneither the bird nor the birder seemed to notice—the steady hum of a half dozen

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As sprawl eats up habitat from coast to coast, some of thenation’s military installations have become sanctuaries

for a surprising number of birds and other wildlife

BASESLOADED

D by Laura Tangley d

U.S. MARINES MONITOR a protected nesting site for the endangered California leasttern (adult with newly hatched chick, above) on Camp Pendelton. More than a thirdof the world’s entire population of the birds nest on Marine Corps or Navy lands.

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Navy Seahawk helicopters circlingoverhead. The Seahawks’ pilots werepracticing tricky takeoffs and landingsat the Navy’s nearby Outlying LandingField, one of seven installations thatmake up a sprawling, 42,573-acre mili-tary complex known as Naval BaseCoronado.

According to Timothy Burr, a seniorwildlife biologist for the Navy, more hel-icopters take off and land at this fieldthan anywhere else in the country. Yet inaddition to protecting the light-footedclapper rail, the Tijuana refuge—half ofwhich occupies Navy-owned land—is ahaven for four other endangered birdsand a diversity of other wildlife species.

ACCIDENTAL OASESThe scene, while apparently incongru-ous, is not unusual. Fifty miles up thecoast from Coronado, Marine CorpsBase Camp Pendleton, the Marines’premier western amphibious trainingfacility, is an oasis for the endangeredSouthwestern willow flycatcher andleast Bell’s vireo, as well as dozens ofother creatures whose riparian and sagescrub habitat have nearly been obliter-ated elsewhere. In Kansas, the U.S.Army’s Fort Riley shelters the nation’slargest remaining native tallgrassprairie, habitat for imperiled grasslandbirds such as the dickcissel andHenslow’s and grasshopper sparrows.And in the Southeast, more than a thirdof all remaining pairs of the criticallyendangered red-cockaded woodpeckerare found on four military installations:Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, FortBragg in North Carolina and FortStewart and Fort Benning in Georgia.

Nationwide, more than 300 federallylisted threatened or endangered speciesinhabit military lands and waters—more than are found throughout theentire national park system, which hasnearly three times more land. “I’ve vis-ited a lot of wildlife refuges and a lot ofmilitary bases, and it can be hard to tellthem apart,” says Eberly, who managesthe U.S. Department of Defense Part-ners in Flight program. “Often, thebases are better for wildlife,” he adds,“because, unlike many refuges, they donot have mandates for multiple uses

like grazing, timber harvesting andrecreation.”

Some military installations, includingCoronado, even include areas where the

public can watch wildlife, especially birds(see page 44). On his own life list, forexample, Eberly says he has chalked upnearly 40 species on U.S. military lands.

The Pentagon, of course, never setout to create these wildlife sanctuaries.But because the military requires largetracts of uninhabited land to traintroops, vast holdings it acquireddecades ago have remained largelyintact, while beyond base borders,development has boomed. Nationwide,the Pentagon manages nearly 30 mil-lion acres encompassing a diversity ofecosystems—from deserts and alpinemeadows to forests, wetlands andseashores—that are home to an evengreater variety of wildlife.

BIG BLACK HOLETraveling Interstate 5 up the coast fromSan Diego to Los Angeles, for example,drivers cross an unmarked, yet unmis-takable, boundary separating CampPendleton from adjacent private land.On one side, apparently untouchedbeaches and coastal scrub forest stretchas far as the eye can see. On the other,there is little more than condos, shop-ping malls and fast-food joints.

“It’s even more impressive flyingover at night,” says Eberly. “The baselooks like a big black hole surroundedby lights. It’s easy to see why a place likethis has a disproportionate number ofendangered species and other wildlife.”

Yet the Pentagon rarely gets kudosfor housing such a diversity of wildlife.Indeed, the relationship between themilitary and most environmentalorganizations has tended to be acrimo-nious. In one recent battle, the DefenseDepartment two years ago asked Con-gress for an exemption to the Endan-gered Species Act’s (ESA) mandate toestablish critical habitat for federallylisted species. The department claimedthat designating critical habitat on mil-itary lands could potentially interfere

with training, and therefore the nation’sreadiness for war.

Following a series of Capitol Hillskirmishes—in which NWF played amajor part—conservationists and thePentagon agreed to a compromise. Mil-itary installations may be excludedfrom critical habitat requirements, butonly if they have prepared and imple-mented Integrated Natural ResourceManagement Plans that provide a “ben-efit” to endangered species and havebeen approved by the U.S. Secretary ofInterior (or Secretary of Commerce formarine species).

Today some 380 resource manage-ment plans are in place. And accordingto NWF legislative representativeCorry Westbrook, “officers at the high-

est levels are realizing that naturalresource protection and training are notmutually exclusive.” She adds, how-ever, that ESA and other environmen-tal laws remain “the hammer thatmakes sure they follow through. Wemust ensure that the military continuesto abide by these laws.”

Still many installations go beyondwhat’s required by law. One warmbreezy morning last fall, for instance,Peter Bloom, a zoologist for the West-ern Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology,stood at the crest of a hill in CampPendleton preparing to release a red-tailed hawk he had just banded. Com-menting that the bird “looks like a reallyhealthy girl,” Bloom told a group of vis-itors that the Marines have allowed him

AN ISLAND OF HABITAT surrounded by dense development, Tijuana Slough NationalWildlife Refuge (above) is an oasis for endangered birds such as the light-footed clapperrail (right) and other wildlife. Half of the refuge occupies U.S. Navy-owned property.

NWF PRIORITY

MAKING THE MILITARY MOREWILDLIFE FRIENDLYIMPROVING THE FATE of wildlife on

U.S. military lands is a high priority at

NWF. For several years, the federa-

tion has been working with Congress

and other conservation groups to

oppose Department of Defense

(DOD) requests for exemptions from

environmental laws, including the

Endangered Species Act. One posi-

tive outcome of the conflict is that

DOD is now asking NWF for advice

on its natural resource management

plans. NWF also is helping DOD

counter the negative effects of

sprawl and invasive species. A new

NWF report on invasive species and

the military will be released this fall.

See “Action Report” on page 50

or www.nwf.org/news.

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to study hawks and other birds of preyon the base for more than 30 years. As aresult, said Bloom, “I’ve developed along-term database on raptor ecologythat’s not available anywhere else.”

As for its accidental role as endan-gered species sanctuary—housing 18endangered or threatened species inall—Camp Pendleton owes much of itssuccess to real estate holdings alone,which in addition to coastal scrub andoak woodlands, include Southern Cali-fornia’s largest stretch of undevelopedcoastline and its only undammed river,the Santa Margarita.

But the installation’s “active and suc-cessful” natural resource managers alsoplay a pivotal role, says Eberly. To assistNeotropical migrants including theleast Bell’s vireo, for example, base per-sonnel trap cowbirds that parasitize themigrants’ nests and rip out nonnativeplants that degrade their riparian habi-tat. Today Camp Pendleton housesapproximately 850 least Bell’s vireopairs, about a third of the world’s entirebreeding population.

SHOREBIRDSANCTUARIESShorelines and wetlands of both CampPendleton and Coronado are also oasesfor the federally listed California leasttern and western snowy plover, specieshit particularly hard by coastal develop-ment. Most places, even when the birdsmanage to find scraps of suitable habi-tat, their chicks and eggs—camou-flaged and laid directly on bare sand—are often trampled by beachgoers orgobbled up by sprawl-associated preda-tors such as crows, raccoons, coyotesand domestic or feral cats.

Bucking trends elsewhere in thestate, both plover and tern populationsare increasing on military lands. Suc-cess is due in part to habitat availabilityand restrictions on public access, as wellas avoiding training when and wherethe birds are nesting. Yet base personnelalso have mounted aggressive conserva-tion actions, from grading beaches andremoving trash and vegetation fromnesting sites to installing protectivefences and shelters for hatchlings. Theirefforts have paid off. Between 1993 and

con, long- and short-eared owls, canyonwren, bald eagle, peregrine falcon, Northerngoshawk, ferruginous and Swainson’s hawks,Wilson’s phalarope, long-billed curlew

6. FORT MCCOYWhen to go: spring, summer, fall Habitats: conifer/deciduous woodlands, sandprairie, grasslands, oak barrens, wetlandsWhat to look for: bald eagle, rough-leggedhawk, northern saw-whet and short-earedowls, evening grosbeak, rose-breasted gros-beak, Baltimore oriole, dickcissel, uplandsandpiper, black-billed cuckoo, veery

7. FORT DRUMWhen to go: spring, summerHabitats: coniferous-deciduous forest, oaksavannas, grasslands, wetlandsWhat to look for: American woodcock,upland sandpiper, bobolink, vesper andgrasshopper sparrows, common nighthawk,Blackburnian and chestnut-sided warblers,snow bunting, snowy owl, scarlet tanager

8. FORT BELVOIRWhen to go: year-roundHabitats: hardwood/pine forests, grass-shrub,freshwater marshes, mud flats, open waterWhat to look for: bald eagle, brown creeper,northern parula, Louisiana waterthrush, pro-thonotary, prairie, hooded and worm-eatingwarblers—plus other songbirds, shorebirdsand waterfowl in migration

9. AVON PARK AIR FORCE RANGEWhen to go: year-roundHabitats: prairie, upland hammock, oak/sandpine scrub, cypress swamp, freshwater marshWhat to look for: Florida scrub jay, Floridagrasshopper sparrow, red-cockaded wood-pecker, Bachman’s sparrow, short-tailedhawk, swallow-tailed kite, crested caracara.

10. EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE When to go: year-roundHabitats: longleaf pine (including oldgrowth), bottomland hardwoods, freshwatermarshes, beach dunes.What to look for: red-cockaded woodpecker,Southeastern American kestrel, prothono-tary and Swainson’s warblers, snowy plover,least tern, black skimmer, Mississippi kite

To learn more about these sites, includingadditional bird species, locations andaccess requirements, see www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife. Checklists for most sitesare available at www.dodpif.org.

BIRDERS CAN SPOT a variety ofsongbirds on several military installationsopen to the public. These include(clockwise from right) the hoodedwarbler, varied thrush, scarlet tanagerand elegant trogon. On bases such asFort Carson (where a soldier watchesBradley armored fighting vehicles,below), both birds and military trainingare at risk as human populations expandtoward the posts’ borders. Despitemajor training activities, Fort Carsonharbors a significant amount ofshortgrass prairie teeming with wildlife.

ON THE ROAD

TEN GREAT BIRDINGDESTINATIONS ONMILITARY LANDS

1. NAVAL BASE CORONADOWhen to go: year-roundHabitats: freshwater and saltwatermarshes, estuary, beaches, coastal scrubWhat to look for: light-footed clapper rail,Belding’s savannah sparrow, western snowyplover, California gnatcatcher, Californialeast tern, hooded oriole, least Bell’s vireo

2. VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASEWhen to go: year-roundHabitats: riparian, freshwater and saltwatermarshes, estuary, chaparral, coastal sage What to look for: western snowy plover, Cali-fornia least tern, oak titmouse, Bell’s sagesparrow, white-tailed kite, Nuttall’s woodpecker

3. FORT HUACHUCAWhen to go: year-roundHabitats: high-elevation riparian, montanegrasslands, Chihuahuan desert scrub, pine-oak and mixed conifer forestsWhat to look for: Mexican and Steller’sjays; bridled titmouse, painted redstart, grayvireo; gray, sulfur-bellied and vermilion fly-catchers; elegant trogon, Montezuma quail,Gould’s wild turkey, Mexican spotted owl

4. FORT CARSONWhen to go: early summer, fallHabitats: grasslands, foothill shrublands,riparian woodlands, wetlandsWhat to look for: pygmy nuthatch, Lazulibunting, Say’s phoebe, black-headed gros-beak, plumbeous vireo, lesser goldfinch,“pink-sided” junco, Clark’s nutcracker

5. ORCHARD TRAINING AREAWhen to go: spring, early summerHabitats: sage shrublands, grasslands,streams and rivers, cliffsWhat to look for: golden eagle, prairie fal-

FPO

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2004, the number of plover nests onNaval Base Coronado property grewfrom 12 to 116, and tern nests increasedfrom 187 to 1,205. Today more than athird of the world’s entire Californialeast tern population breeds on Navy orMarine Corps lands.

COST OF VICTORYBut success has come at a price. Over thepast three years, so many terns andplovers have nested on Naval Base Coro-nado that populations are spilling overonto sections of beach considered criticalfor training. So far, the U.S. Fish andWildlife Service has given Navy officialspermission to discourage nesting onsome beaches and to collect and incubatein captivity eggs that end up in trainingzones. But according to Navy biologistBurr, it’s only a matter of time beforeeven these expensive, time-consumingmeasures will be inadequate, and Coron-ado’s “primary mission as a Navy train-ing facility will be compromised.”

At Camp Pendleton, wildlife biolo-gist Bill Berry expresses a similar frus-tration. “There’s a tendency to look atmilitary installations as de facto wildliferefuges,” he says. “But the military can-not bear the entire burden of endan-gered species recovery in the region.”

Unfortunately, the force fueling suchconflicts—urban sprawl—is not likelyto go away. Sprawl hurts the military in

other ways, because the closer peoplelive to military installations, the furtherfrom base boundaries training isallowed. Seeing eye to eye on this prob-lem, environmental groups, includingNWF, are trying to convince Congressto mandate the creation of buffer zonesaround many military bases.

Another trend both conservationistsand military personnel find worrisomeis the Defense Department’s ongoingplan to save money and improve securityby shutting down many of the country’sbases. In crowded regions like SouthernCalifornia, such closures would quicklymake military lands vulnerable to devel-opment. In the latest round of potentialcuts, announced in May, the Pentagonproposed eliminating 180 installationsover the next six years.

Watching his newly banded hawksoar above Camp Pendleton’s vastscrublands, Bloom pointed out whatcould be at stake. “If Pendleton closed,”he said, “none of this would be aroundfor long.” Because the base is so criticalto Marines Corps training, it is unlikelyto be affected by cuts. “But if it were,”added Bloom, “the environmentalcommunity would come out to supportthe military in a really big way.”

Senior Editor LAURA TANGLEY wentbirding with Chris Eberly on three WestCoast military installations last fall.

A LONGLEAF PINE FOREST on Eglin Air ForceBase (left) in the Florida panhandle shelters a numberof animals threatened by the destruction elsewhere ofthis now rare habitat. One species is the red-cockadedwoodpecker (removing a fecal sac and empty egg shellfrom its nesting cavity, below). More than a third ofall remaining pairs of this endangered bird inhabitEglin and other military installations in the Southeast.