State to military: Take out the trash
CAMP EDWARDS — Years of training at the Upper Cape military base has left some unwanted items littering the ranges and woods of Camp Edwards.
One of the base's large firing ranges is home to a dilapidated trailer and three boats.
In another part of the base, a decaying airplane fuselage lies in a field, tagged with graffiti from military units and full of bullet holes, possibly from hunters.
The large items may once have been used for military training, but have had no known use, in some cases for decades.
Now state Environmental Officer Mark Begley has asked the military to take out the trash.
The junk isn't a threat to the groundwater or the environment, but it goes against the spirit of the state law that dictates how military activity should mesh with environmental stewardship of the land on which the base in located.
"Better management of the debris out there is a way to reduce impact to the habitats," he said.
Military officials agree that the debris should be removed, and earlier this year they requested funding from the National Guard Bureau to put together a plan to get rid of it.
The northern 15,000 acres of the base, a training area for the National Guard, is governed by a strict set of environmental performance standards meant to guarantee that military activity does not interfere with the aquifer from which the Cape gets most of its drinking water, or with endangered species that share the land.
Begley, three citizen committees and the Massachusetts National Guard's Environmental and Readiness Center are in place to make sure the military meets those standards.
The National Guard has several ongoing programs that have restored hundreds of acres of endangered habitat.
Timely requestThe Guard is already putting together an environmental management plan, so this would be a good time to address the junk issue, Begley said.
"It would make sense to look at every stewardship issue that is out there," he said. "Dealing with some of that debris that's of no training value probably makes a lot of sense."
The smaller items include car parts found in the woods after prescribed burns or scrap metal dug up from the base's groundwater study program.
Some of the largest items are at an 800-meter "known distance" firing range. Behind the farthest target is an old trailer, insulation hanging from its ceiling.
Behind the trailer, in front of a the line of trees, is a large metal structure with circular windows that appears to be a part of a boat.
Several feet into the woods is an intact boat, surrounded by full-grown trees. Begley said he heard the boat was a gift from the Coast Guard that may date back three decades.
Larry Cole, chairmen of the Citizens Advisory Committee, one of the groups charged with overseeing the base, recently toured the base. He found another small boat and some 50-gallon drums when he walked deeper into the woods.
He said he was surprised to find the debris.
"I don't think it's any threat to the groundwater," Cole said. "I just think it's a matter of principle that it ought to be cleaned up."
Most junk unusedAs far as Camp Edwards officials could tell, the items may have been intended for target practice or other training, but most went unused over the years.
Lt. Col. David Cunha, commander of the Environmental and Readiness Center on the base, agreed that the junk should be removed.
"If we're not going to use it, we should get rid of it," he said.
The military has already begun to clean and refurbish areas of the base left neglected for years.
They hauled away old bunkers and removed other metal debris left over from a training drill on how to respond to a nuclear, biological or chemical attack. Dirt roads have been resurfaced and the edges seeded with grass to prevent soil from washing away.
Lynda Wadsworth, community outreach manager for the Environmental and Readiness Center, said those projects were both good for the environment and good for the soldiers who train at the base.
Begley said the Camp Edwards range managers quickly responded to his request to pick up egg-sized blue plastic practice rounds fired onto the 800-meter range.
Begley said the large debris, like the boats and plane, are the next step, especially now that scrap metal prices are at an all-time high.