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The Continued Development of Southwest Riverside County Threatens the Environment and Camp Pendleton, Researchers Say

By Timothy O'Leary,

The Press-Enterprise

Unless steps are taken soon, Los Angeles-style sprawl will engulf Southwest Riverside County and threaten training operations at Camp Pendleton, authors of a regional growth study warned Thursday.

"The time for decisions is now," said Allan Shearer, research fellow at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. "If you do not make a decision in the next few years, the opportunity will have passed."

In the four years since the federally funded study was finished, development spurred by a healthy economy has covered much of the open space that was home to endangered and threatened plants and animals.

"Each time you go there, you see huge changes," said David A. Mouat, associate research professor for the Desert Research Institute in Reno.

About 100 people, including members of the California Biodiversity Council, gathered at Camp Pendleton for a two-day conference that looked at the effects of growth on the base and the Santa Margarita River watershed.

Marine officials are concerned because the loss of habitat for endangered and threatened plants and animals in surrounding coastal and inland communities will squeeze more of those species onto the 125,000-acre base.

The base, which spends more than $20 million a year on its environmental programs, would be forced to further reduce training exercises on much of its land and beaches so that the jeopardized species are not harmed, officials said.

"It’s becoming a major concern to us, the population growth in Southern California," said Marine Col. Dave Linnebur, a Biodiversity Council member. "So much so, that we’re concerned that the Marines may be an endangered species on Camp Pendleton."

Peter Kiriakos, conservation chairman for the Sierra Club’s San Gorgonio Chapter, said this is a crucial time to protect key resources because work is under way to plot future growth in Riverside and San Diego counties.

The two-year Harvard study examined how the growth of communities around Camp Pendleton by 2010 and beyond will affect the base that is home to about 40,000 Marines. Other participants included Utah State University, the Environmental Protection Agency, The Nature Conservancy, Camp Pendleton and other groups.

The 4,000-square-mile study area took in portions of three counties and 20 cities. It included Temecula, Murrieta, Lake Elsinore, Sun City, Quail Valley and parts of the Hemet area. About 130 residents, politicians, planners and environmentalists attended a community meeting on the plan in January 1996.

A report was released on the study four months later. The report looked at five development scenarios. The report anticipated the study area to grow from 1.1 million residents in 1990 to 1.6 million in 2010.

The development scenarios examined ranged from the creation of open space areas, clustered growth that included the creation of a "New City" in the French Valley area to "a typical sprawl pattern" resembling much of Los Angeles.

Such growth would increase the region’s reliance on imported water and force more endangered and threatened species onto the base. Runoff from the new homes and businesses flowing into the Santa Margarita River and its many tributaries could double flooding on the base, which has had more than $145 million in damage to its buildings, bridges, roads and air base during past winter storms.

Some conference participants said government agencies throughout the region are too fragmented to protect crucial open space and take other steps to slow the rapid growth rate.

Some members of the Biodiversity Council—a 37-member panel of federal, state and local officials from environmental, conservation and planning agencies—said the group may want to help coordinate efforts between the cities, counties, and the base and state and federal agencies in the study area.

Lupe Armas, base assistant chief of staff for environmental security, said the Harvard study may be updated if additional funds become available. He said base officials want to continue to track development in the communities around the base and predict its future impact.

The study and the conference have raised the awareness of the pressures that growth is putting on the base and the environment, he said.

"It was one of the smartest things we ever did," Armas said.

This article was originally printed on June 9, 2000. Reprinted with permission of The Press-Enterprise.

State Environmentalists Learn Desert Preservation Methods

By Lukas Velush

The Desert Sun

The cool shade provided by spring-fed palms of the Coachella Valley Preserve reminded California Biodiversity Council members why preserving biodiversity is important.

The council, made up of natural-resource-focused government officials from all over the state, is meeting in Palm Springs this week to try to get a better understanding of biological diversity in a desert environment.

The Coachella Valley Preserve, one of several stops made by about 100 people on Wednesday, is the site of several fault-fed oases near Thousand Palms.

The group was told of the effects of non-native species such as tamarisks on native plant life. The tamarisks took root around the rare surface water over the years, choking out most plant species that naturally tend to cluster around open or shallow water in the desert, Cameron Barrows, director of the reserve, told his bused-in group of visitors.

"We have a number of young palm trees in here now," Barrows said, pointing to a thicket of mixed native vegetation that he said has moved in since the tamarisk trees were removed. "You can see the young cottonwood trees coming up over there."

The burst of life that was reintroduced and is now thriving in the oasis shows how important preserving biodiversity and native plant life is, said Janine Stenback, the California Department of Fish and Game’s chief of wildlife and habitat, data and analysis branch.

"Locals are coming up with solutions through partnerships," said Stenback of the tamarisk removal, adding those are lessons government officials want to learn about and possibly duplicate in other parts of the state.

To meet that goal, the Biodiversity Council has been traveling to a new bioregion every three months. The desert environment was the tenth the group has visited.

California Secretary for Resources Mary Nichols said learning how different groups in the Coachella Valley are finding creative ways to preserve the valley’s natural ecosystem is the reason the California Biodiversity Council was created in the first place.

"People are already doing a lot here," said Nichols, who heads up the council. "I think there’s been some real pioneering work done here."

Nichols made her comments on a bus moving from a visit to the Bighorn Institute’s captive-breeding facility south of Palm Desert to a tour of The Reserve, a high-end country club in Indian Wells that uses all desert landscaping outside of its greens.

Article first printed April 13, 2000. Used by permission of The Desert Sun.