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thedrifter
03-10-09, 07:27 AM
REGION: Military wants to be exempt from reserves

By DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer

Military officials are wasting little time trying to influence a proposed network of state-protected areas taking shape along the coast to restore depleted populations of marine life and their damaged habitats.

Officials representing Navy Region Southwest, headquartered in San Diego, recently urged a regional panel to avoid designating such areas in the places they train.

Similar to wilderness areas on land, marine-protected areas generally restrict human activities such as fishing.

There is concern that, if a protected area were to cover all or part of a particular training ground, the military might have to scale back operations. The concern is not that the state would ---- or could ---- bar training in a protected area, but that the designation would trigger a political chain reaction and, ultimately, federal restrictions.

The move to designate ocean reserves comes a few months after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Navy's right to use sonar in war games off the Southern California coast.

"The training areas offshore of Southern California are critical for national defense," said Michael Huber, regional environmental coordination program manager for Navy Region Southwest, in a telephone interview Friday. "That's why we are taking a proactive approach to engage early in this process, rather than waiting until the latter part of the process and objecting to the proposals."

The state is studying where protected areas should be declared along the coast from Santa Barbara to the U.S.-Mexico border in waters over which it has jurisdiction ---- from the shore to three miles out. A decision is expected around the end of the year.

There are several offshore military use areas. The largest training grounds are Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base's shoreline and the rings around San Clemente and San Nicholas islands. All three places are considered vital to the Department of Defense's mission.

Camp Pendleton, for example, is one of the world's busiest training installations, Huber said.

"And it is the only place on the West Coast where they (the Marines) can do amphibious landings," he said.

But the training areas also harbor some of the best-preserved habitat and healthiest populations of marine life, scientists say. And their combined size ---- 414 square miles ---- accounts for almost one-fifth of the 2,300 square miles of state waters off Southern California.

"The military made it very clear to us early on that they didn't want to see any (marine-protected areas) in any military use areas," said Melissa Miller-Henson, program manager for the state's Marine Life Protection Act Initiative. "But those are pretty large swaths of ocean. We understand their desire, we just don't know if it is realistic given the science."

While the Navy doesn't fish, it does blow up things. And it practices with sonar, which has been linked to whale deaths in other parts of the world.

The military use areas are home to nearly 30 percent of the region's kelp beds, according to a state report.

San Nicholas Island has the region's largest remaining population of the endangered black abalone and the only regular population of sea otters.

The east shore of San Clemente Island is sheltered from prevailing swells and, as a result, is one of two places where warm-water, wave-protected plant and animal communities thrive ---- the other being the lee side of Santa Catalina Island.

The islands are home to large lobsters and a thriving population of giant seabass.

The shore along Pendleton is considered less crucial when it comes to ocean animals. But it is hugely important when it comes to marine birds. Pendleton shelters a quarter of Southern California's California least terns and Western snowy plovers, according to the report.

Huber said the Department of Defense realizes the areas' biological importance. But he said the Navy already is managing them in a way that protects wildlife.

"The goals of the military and protecting the environment are not mutually exclusive," Huber said. "We can do both. We have come up with a creative solution that actually is a win-win."

Huber said the Navy already bars fishing in state waters around San Nicholas Island and a portion of San Clemente Island ---- at Wilson Cove. He said the Navy expects, over the next seven months, to close remaining areas around San Clemente during hazardous operations.

Huber is a member of the South Coast Regional Stakeholder Group, a panel composed of a wide cross-section of fishermen, divers, conservationists, coastal public officials and military officials working on ideas for a network of protected areas.

Conservationists say they are considering the military's proposal to exempt training areas from the network.

"We really appreciate DOD coming to the table and getting involved in the process from the beginning," said Jenn Feinberg, ocean policy consultant for the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council. "We recognize they have a history of coming up with creative solutions that balance environmental stewardship and their military missions."

Huber, of Navy Region Southwest, said local officials aren't worried about a marine protected area designation in and of itself.

But, Huber said, "It really does create a public perception that military activity is somehow banned." And, he said, it could bring political pressure to bear down the road to restrict training.

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.

Ellie