[CPEO-MEF] Marines Less Prepared for Combat Thanks to Endangered Species Restr

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California
Marines Less Prepared for Combat Thanks to Endangered Species
Restrictions
By National Center for Public Policy Research
CNSNews.com Special
April 18, 2003

(Editor's Note: The following is the 29th of 100 stories regarding
government regulation from the book Shattered Dreams, written by the
National Center for Public Policy Research.CNSNews.com will publish an
additional story each day.)

Marines at Camp Pendleton in California may not be as prepared for
action as they should be because  environmental regulations have been
imposed on their training. The 125,000-acre Camp Pendleton is home to
three Marine Expeditionary Units, including more than 100,000 soldiers,
their families and civilian employees. Eighteen -plant and animal
species the government considers endangered or threatened also are found
there. As a result, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has tried
to make over 70,000 acres of the base, more than half, off-limits to
soldiers in the name of protecting endangered habitat.

According to Colonel Bennett W. Saylor, chief of staff of the 1st Marine
Division, "There are certain standards in our training and readiness
manuals that we cannot conduct... To be able to come from the sea, cross
the beach and occupy firing positions adjacent to a beachhead,
unopposed, and to go to firing positions inland is important to us."
Local FWS representative Jane Hendron counters, "We understand that the
U.S. Marine Corps has a mission, but our service has a mission, too -
preserving endangered species."]

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