MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII -- Marines with Combat Assault Company and members of the Environmental Compliance and Protection Department drove amphibious assault vehicles throughout the Nu‘upia Pond area Feb. 4 aboard Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
The purpose of driving through the ponds was to manage the wildlife area and break up pickleweed in order to provide a better habitat for the endangered Hawaiian stilt, a large, slender shorebird.
“We’re conducting what we call ‘MudOps,’ an annual event that was initiated with (Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” said Lance Bookless, the senior natural resources manager with the Environmental Department aboard MCB Hawaii. “The program began in 1982 in order to benefit the almost extinct Hawaiian stilt, which were then looking for habitats they might utilize.”
The stilts prefer open mud flats with very shallow water and, once the Marines opened the area up with the AAVs, the stilts began to gather in the track marks. Bookless said there were initially only a handful of stilts, but now there is a fair number of the birds residing in the ponds.
“That’s why all this happens; we’re managing the endangered stilt’s habitat,” Bookless said. “The pickleweed is an invasive species that grows over the puddles and exposed mud, reducing the amount of livable habitat for the birds. If the AAVs didn’t drive around the mud, in a couple of years, pools of water would start to fill in, exhausting the bird’s feeding areas.”
1st Lt. Carlos Silva, the AAV platoon commander with CAC, said they have been performing the mud operations annually for 33 years, not only to benefit the environment, but the Marines as well.
“Churning up the pickleweed is beneficial to the wildlife because when we do that, we’re actually enhancing the area the birds live in,” Silva said. “A lot of the (stilts) stay and live in this area and, by us continuously doing this, we help create a better home for them. For the Marines, they are able to (participate) in various training and readiness events in order to meet their standards and enhance their performance. They are able to train in recovery operations, as well as drive the AAVs on land and navigate on unstable terrain.”
Silva said the Marines would continue to coordinate with the Environmental Department in order to give back to the base and support the efforts to protect the endangered species.
“If the Marines didn’t come out here, we would lose a lot of the habitat,” Bookless said. “The majority of this area is ripped up by the AAVs and if it wasn’t, all the invasive weeds would encroach on it. We’ve looked at many different ways to control it, but nothing is as effective as the AAV.”
Bookless said they tried herbicides one year, but were unable to treat the entirety of the ponds without having to worry about poisoning the local flora and fauna.
“Their track system is what really does the damage,” Bookless said. “A regular vehicle couldn’t have done anything like this. The AAVs can dig deeply because they can get into the mud to rip up the roots and, really, anything else — rather than just cut through the first couple inches of soil, which wouldn’t help out much.”
Bookless said that though there was no requirement for the Marines to assist the Environmental Department, they have always been there and he hopes they will continue to do so.
“There are a lot of situations where the military is forced to modify its training based on potential impacts to the environment, and this is a situation where the Marines’ training directly benefits the environment and the endangered species living here,” Bookless said. “If they ever stopped coming out here, we don’t know what we would do.”