Air Force Wiping Out Rare Wildlife Of Guam

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5, 2009
11:33 AM

CONTACT: PEER
Luke Eshleman (202) 265-7337

Air Force Wiping Out Rare Wildlife Of Guam

Rampant Poaching, Beach Paving and Human Intrusion Ruins Island Habitat

WASHINGTON – March 5 – The U.S. Air Force base on Guam is contributing to the loss of the highly endangered wildlife it is supposed to protect, according to a whistleblower disclosure filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Air Force officials are turning a blind eye to poaching by base “volunteers” and are sponsoring questionable construction projects that are harming rare bats, birds and sea turtles, among other native species.

The formal disclosure by Nancy Mitton, the Natural Resources Specialist at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam since September 2006, requests that the Department of Defense Inspector General undertake an immediate review of widespread environmental violations at the base and the complicity of base command. Among the problems cited by Mitton are –

* Rampant poaching by base Volunteer Conservation Officers, including illegal trapping of coconut crabs and resale of trophy deer;

* Half of the endangered fruit bats (a local delicacy) on the base have recently disappeared. A flock of extremely rare Mariana crows has been virtually wiped out by hunters. Yet, in both cases base command refused to take recommended protective steps; and

* Paving beaches and stripping vegetation used for nesting by endangered hawksbill turtles and threatened green sea turtles. Among the questionable shoreline projects pushed by base officers are dog trails to allow their pets to run unleashed on sensitive wildlife tracts.

“The Air Force program for protecting Guam’s natural resources has utterly broken down” stated PEER Senior Counsel Paula Dinerstein, who today filed Mitton’s complaint with the Defense Inspector General. “Officers are treating sensitive wildlife habitat like their personal beach resort.”

Many of the issues identified by Mitton involve unrestricted hunting by local volunteers who are allowed to enter and leave the Air Force base without their vehicles being searched, in violation of security rules. In addition, the disclosure describes a variety of unsafe ordnance detonation practices.

Andersen AFB occupies the northern end of the island of Guam and hosts the 36th Wing of the Pacific Air Forces. It is one of four Bomber Forward Operating Locations in the Air Force which support bomber crews deploying overseas. Plans are underway for the U.S. Navy to take over Anderson AFB.

“Andersen is so remote that there is a feeling of invulnerability reported by staff about the command – a sense that rules do not apply on the island,” Dinerstein added. “Until our Defense agencies start holding officers to account for environmental violations, the vast trove of vital natural resources in military custody can never be secure.”

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Read the disclosure of problems (March 5, 2009)

See a summary of problems at Andersen AFB (March 5, 2009)

Look at other recent Pentagon eco-problems

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Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is a national alliance of local state and federal resource professionals. PEER’s environmental work is solely directed by the needs of its members. As a consequence, we have the distinct honor of serving resource professionals who daily cast profiles in courage in cubicles across the country.