Green Options » Department of Defense

Nine Endangered Species that are Being Protected by the U.S. Military

Tina Casey — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:33:28 +0000

Hundreds of U.S. military installations have become “islands of protection in seas of development.” The Department of Defense has over 25 million acres of land under its jurisdiction, including key endangered species habitats that are preserved from encroaching civilian development. More than 300 listed endangered species make a home on U.S. military installations and hundreds of others are threatened. Here are nine of them.

1. Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle is present at a number of U.S. military sites including Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland which is a prime nesting area. Fort Riley in Kansas is one of the largest wintering spots for the bald eagle in the U.S., with up to 388 eagles observed in camp at a time.

Image: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via wikimedia.

2. Marbled Murrelet

Potential habitat for the marbled murrelet exists in of the last remaining stands of low-elevation Sitka spruce, at the U.S. Naval Radio Station at Jim Creek, Washington. The Navy owned the land but not the logging rights and extensive logging occurred until 1990, when the Navy purchased the rights in order to preserve 225 acres containing Sitka and western red cedars up to 1,500 years old.

Image: Marbled murrelet chick by Peter Halasz at wikimedia.

3. Mojave Desert Tortoise

Human encroachment and its attendant trash has made the Mojave Desert more attractive to ravens, which love to feast on young tortoises. Combined with military’s use of the land for training purposes, the effect on the Mojave Desert Tortoise has been severe. Restoration of the population involves a coordinated effort partnering with UCLA, including a captive-rearing program initiated at Edwards Air Force Base.

Image by Tigerhawkvok at wikimedia.

4. California Least Tern

Some of the largest remaining nesting sites of the California Least Tern are located in the San Diego Bay. As lead agency in a conservation plan and host for nesting colonies on three of its bases, the U.S. Navy coordinates with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Port Authority, and the private shipping industry.

Image: US Fish and Wildlife Service via wikimedia.

5. West Indian Manatee

The West Indian Manatee was falling victim to the propellers of U.S. Navy’s powerful C-tractor tugboats at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia until the early 1990’s, when the navy began to install propeller guards which not only protected the manatees but also improved efficiency. Now all tugs and other small vessels at Kings Bay have propeller guards. Other protective measures include speed limits, no-entry areas, and population monitoring in and around the bay.

Image: West Indian Manatee with calf, US Fish and Wildlife Service via wikimedia.

6. Red-Cockaded Woodpecker

At the U.S. Marines Corps base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, the red-cockaded woodpecker is being protected through restoration of its longleaf pine habitat, monitoring of roosting and nesting areas, and population monitoring.

Image: GNU Free Documentation License at wikimedia.

7. California Red-Legged Frog

While not on the endangered species list, the California Red-Legged Frog is listed as a threatened species. The California National Guard at Camp San Luis Obispo has become a critical habitat for the frog due to nearby population encroachment and reservoir construction. Erosion control efforts along streams at the facility help protect the frog while also stabilizing land for its training mission.

Image: Pierre Fidenci at calphotos via wikimedia.

8. Gray Wolf

The 53,000 acre Camp Ripley is home to the Minnesota National Guard and it also hosts a thriving population of the Gray Wolf. Camp Ripley was the first facility in the country to develop a gray wolf monitoring and tracking program.

Image: US Fish and Wildlife Service.

9. Regal Fritillary Butterfly

9. Habitat management consistent with military training goals can go a long way. The Regal Fritillary Butterfly, once near the endangered species list, is thriving at Fort Indiantown Gap. The Pennsylvania National Guard facility hosts the country’s single largest population of the butterfly and has protected its grassland habitat by relocating some mechanized exercises and converting others to virtual exercises.

Image: Vintage postcard from Karen’s Whimsey.

Army Going Solar With 500 MW of Solar Power in Mojave Desert

Ariel Schwartz — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 01:27:01 +0000

The Army knows that extensive alternative energy installations are the best way to ensure continuous, reliable electricity production. That’s why the military organization is building the Department of Defense’s largest ever solar project at the Fort Irwin Base in California’s Mojave Desert.

Read more of this story »

U.S. Military Targets Toxic Enemy #1: Hexavalent Chromium

Tina Casey — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:49:05 +0000

If hexavalent chromium doesn’t ring a bell, think chrome, the stuff that puts the shine on everything from bathroom faucets to motorcycles.

If that still doesn’t help, maybe Erin Brockovich does. In the 1990’s, the former legal clerk fought to expose hexavalent chromium contamination in drinking water, in the small California town of Hinkley. The result was a record-breaking settlement and a major motion picture. Fast forward to April 2009, and the U.S. military is adding a new chapter to the Brockovich book. The Department of Defense has issued a formal memo requiring an aggressive across-the-board reduction in the military’s use of hexavalent chromium, otherwise known as chromium 6.

Read more of this story »

Pentagon Spends Economic Stimulus to Develop Alternative Fuels and Save Energy

Jennifer Lance — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:19:55 +0000

The US Department of Defense is the largest consumer of energy in the United States spending $18 billion a year. Fueling jet engines and running generators at operating bases use up much of the Pentagon’s fuel.

Coupled with economics, dwindling natural resources, and the dangers of transporting fuel in war zones (half of all US casualties in Iraq are from attacks on fuel carrying convoys), the military plans to spend economic stimulus money on alternative fuels and energy conservation.

Traditionally, the Department of Defense has cared little about saving money. The recent shift towards alternative fuels as a military priority is an effort to reduce casualties rather than save natural resources or funds. “The honest-to-God truth, the most compelling reason to do it is it saves lives,” said Brigadier General Steven Anderson, director of operations and logistics for the Army. Saving money, preserving dwindling natural resources and lessening U.S. dependence on foreign sources are lesser priorities of the alternative fuels and energy conservation initiatives.

The Iraq and Afghanistan Wars have set the record for the most fuel consumption of any war in US history. Since the War on Terror began in 2001, the amount of oil consumption has increased from 50 million gallons to 500 million gallons a year at bases. Using Economic Stimulus Package money, the Pentagon has several alternative fuels and energy saving projects planned.

Read more of this story »

The US Army: Who Knew that it Actually Tried to be Sustainable and Protect the Environment?

Amiel Blajchman — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:01:30 +0000

What sort of efforts does the US Army undertake to protect and manage its impacts on the environment? Perhaps surprisingly to some, the legislative muscle behind existing Army programs (and the push to expand those programs) to protect the environment is actually quite robust.

Environmental Management

To begin with, the Army Strategy for the Environment, was developed to serve as a policy guidance document leading the Army to “establish a long-range vision that enables the Army to meet its mission today and into the future.” Their motto? “Sustain the Mission - Secure the Future.” Some may find it trite, but without a vision and goals, it’s hard to get anywhere.

There is also the Army Environmental Policy Institute, which ”assists the Army Secretariat in developing policies and strategies to improve or resolve environmental policy issues that may have significant short or long-term impacts on the Army.” It works towards the Army’s triple bottom line of Mission, Environment, and Community.

Read more of this story »

Pentagon to Get Over 4,000 LED Fixtures

Jerry James Stone — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 09:01:14 +0000

Cree Inc. will be fitting Wedge 5 of the Pentagon with over 4,000 LED light fixtures.The U.S. Department of Energy said that LED lighting saved the country about 8.7 trillion watt hours in 2007. This is out of the 765 trillion watt hours used for lighting in the United States.

Read more of this story »

World’s First 100% Renewable Jet Fuel is Created

Meg Hamill — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:38:15 +0000

The Department of Defense funded the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) to create the world’s first renewable jet fuel, and the mission had been accomplished.

It didn’t surprise me to learn that the Department of Defense is the number one consumer of petroleum in America. And so neither did it surprise me to learn that the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) was granted a $4.7 million contract by the Department of Defense to research alternative and renewable sources of fuel.

My interest was piqued when, a few days ago, the EERC claimed to have invented the world’s first 100% renewable jet fuel.

JP-8 fuel is a petroleum-based fuel currently in wide use by the military. The EERC has created a substitute for the fuel, using renewable feedstock made from agricultural products and/or waste oils. The process developed by the EERC can produce propane, gasoline, jet fuel and diesel that are identical to the fuels derived from petroleum.

Read more of this story »

Price of Oil Has Department of Defense Looking to Save Fuel

Timothy B. Hurst — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:30:12 +0000

$1 per barrel increase in the price of oil costs U.S. $130 million

Whenever I’m involved in a discussion about government waste and/or the politics of bureaucratic budgeting, I undoubtedly recount a story that usually leaves people nodding in agreement or shaking their head in disbelief. The story goes like this: A friend of mine we’ll call “Rob,” whom I used to work with during my summer breaks, was coming back to Massachusetts for an unexpected late-September visit. Rob had relocated to Pensacola, Florida where he was learning how to fly jets at the Naval Flight Training School. As Rob lifted the golf clubs out of the nose of the fighter jet he had just flown from Florida to Massachusetts for a one-day visit, he knew his trip was different - and he was a little uneasy about it.

You see, Rob’s day-long visit to play golf in Massachusetts was made possible by an officer (or officers) who rightly feared that ending up with a surplus of fuel at the end of that fiscal year would slash the budget for fuel in the next. Rob’s little visit was back in the early 1990s, but with today’s skyrocketing fuel prices, and the added fuel demands of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the “largest single user of petroleum products in the world” is looking for ways to use less fuel - and more types of it.

Read more of this story »

First Heavy-Duty Diesel Powered By Algae Biodiesel, Solazyme’s “Soladiesel”

Clayton B. Cornell — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:07:54 +0000

It looks like Solazyme will be making algal biodiesel for the US military, after a test-drive demonstrated the fuel’s superior cold-weather properties when compared to commercially-available biodiesel.

Former Director of Central Intelligence and Under-Secretary of the Navy R. James Woolsey tested the fuel himself by driving to the Worldwide Energy Conference & Trade Show in an unmodified 2008 Ford F450 fueled by 100% algal biodiesel.

Read more of this story »