NASL Fosters Endangered Species Through Controlled Burn

NAVAL AIR STATION LEMOORE, Calif. (NNS) -- Natural resource specialists at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore are hopeful that a controlled burn June 16 will help restore the waning population of the San Joaquin kangaroo rat in an area of the installation designated as a habitat for the endangered species since 1992.

"San Joaquin kangaroo rats were identified in the area in 1989," said John Crane, NAS Lemoore's natural resources manager. "A few years later, unauthorized dirt work was conducted on motocross trails in the Tumbleweed Park complex, resulting in damage to kangaroo rat burrows and possibly killing some of the animals."

Soon after, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ordered the area closed to recreational use and set aside for protection of the remaining kangaroo rats. Several years of research in the Natural Resources Management Area indicated certain vegetation in the reserve, brome grass mostly, was incompatible with the survival of kangaroo rats.

"A comprehensive management strategy for the conservation of kangaroo rats discovered that periodic burning opens up the habitat, allowing native vegetation to re-establish," said Crane. "It appears that strategy is highly beneficial to the survival of the kangaroo rat."

A 100-acre matrix within the habitat was strategically burned with firebreaks established within the boundary to create islands of unburned vegetation of one to five acres each.

"This species of kangaroo rat needs to have its habitat disturbed on a regular basis to help the overall population," said Shawn Smallwood, a wildlife ecologist with the Eastern Sierra Institute for Collaborative Education. "The kangaroo rat population in this habitat has declined and sometimes you have to jeopardize the loss of a few to better their existence."

Smallwood has mapped the habitat 23 times over the past ten years and will return to the site in about a month to plot the kangaroo rat's burrows.

The controlled burn also provided a cooperative training opportunity for 35 firefighters from NAS Lemoore, Kings County and California Department of Forestry.

"By prescribed burn standards, it was a perfect burn," said Gary Alvidrez, NAS Lemoore's fire chief. "Working together with our counterparts gave us a chance to test our communication capabilities."

NAS Lemoore's Emergency Management Office set up a command post near the burn site where firefighters organized under the National Incident Management System (NIMS).

"Using NIMS allows us to work together to prepare for, prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents," said Rainer Streib, NAS Lemoore's emergency management officer. "Staging a controlled burn to save the kangaroo rat population at the installation's endangered species habitat was an opportunity to test our systems and our response."

In addition to the endangered San Joaquin kangaroo rat, NAS Lemoore's natural resources department enjoys a continued partnership with regional wildlife authorities to reintroduce rescued species back into the environment.


For more news from Naval Air Station Lemoore, http://www.navy.mil/local/lemoore/.