[CPEO-MEF] San Clemente Island's endangered habitat

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

In his March, 2001 Senate testimony on "Encroachment," Vice-Admiral
James Amerault explained how the Navy's use of one of its most essential
live-fire ranges, San Clemente Island, was restricted due to the
presence of the nation's "most endangered bird," the San Clemente Island
Loggerhead Shrike. To read the Admiral's testimony, it appeared that the
Navy was the victim of a cruel accident of biology and history.

However, browsing through some of my files today, I learned that the
Navy was not an innocent party. On January 19, 1997 the New York Times
(reprinted in the San Jose Mercury News as "Navy turns from enemy to
ally of struggling bird on San Clemente Island")  reported that the
Shrike was the victim of bad land management practices, particularly -
as on the Hawai'ian island of Kaho'olawe - the tolerated presence of
wild, habitat-destroying goats. Rats, feral cats, and fires also posed a
problem, and the Navy acted slowly to protect the habitat, for which the
birds served as an indicator.

I'm bringing this up not to condemn the Navy. Many other landowners have
also been poor resource stewards in the past. The key point is that the
Navy's training operations might not pose a threat to the endangered
species and its habitat today if it had acted earlier and more
energetically to improve land management practices that had little, if
anything, to do with training.

Lenny
-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
lsiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org

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