CULTURAL AND NATURAL RESOURCES SUPPORT AT THE MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER, TWENTYNINE PALMS, CALIFORNIA

The Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command (MAGTFTC), Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC), Twentynine Palms, is the Marine Corps’ largest combined-arms, live-fire training facility, encompassing 1,102 square miles of mostly public lands in the Mojave Desert, California. The Combat Center is divided into 27 range training area management units, each of which may contain training areas, landing fields, targetry, main supply routes, fixed ranges, support areas, expeditionary areas, and safety buffer zones. Armed forces use the Combat Center to train troops and test equipment. MCAGCC annually provides training to one-third of the Fleet Marine Force and Reserves Units. The Conservation Branch of the Environmental Affairs Division is responsible for the long-term management of cultural and natural resources within MCAGCC.

MCAGCC has significant cultural resources that are managed according to MAGTFTC’s Integrated Cultural Resources Management Plan (ICRMP). The Conservation Branch liaises with other Federal landholders and consults with state and Federal regulatory agencies regarding cultural resources. This branch is the primary agent responsible for the planning and implementation of the ICRMP, ensures that MCAGCC land use is monitored, and guides implementation of the best practices for cultural resource management while sustaining or enhancing the Marine Corps training mission.

The Conservation Branch maintains a cultural resources collection that represents the archaeological history of MCAGCC and other Marine Corps installations in the region. The collection also includes reports describing archaeological finds, and artifact analyses and dispositions. The collection is housed at MCAGCC, but many collection components have not been properly accessioned, and the collection inventory is out of date. To comply with federal regulations and the installation’s ICRMP, the collection must be properly inventoried, with new items accessioned in a formal, documented manner. Once updated, the collection will be a research resource to better understand the archaeological context of the native peoples who traditionally used the area that is now MCAGCC. Field

visits and surveys are essential tools for enhancing cultural resource management.

MCAGCC’s significant natural resources are fundamental aspects of MCAGCC’s military training environment. These soils, communities and ecosystem processes are sometimes vulnerable to forces related to military training, facilities maintenance, hazardous material, and electromagnetic forces, and are managed per MCAGCC’s Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan (INRMP) and foundational regulations

(e.g., the Sikes Act Improvement Act [SAIA], Migratory Bird Treaty Act [MBTA], and Endangered Species Act [ESA]). The training mission, support activities, and human habitation can stimulate human-wildlife conflicts (e.g., coyote and common raven impacts on humans, equipment and infrastructure), and human-vegetation conflicts (e.g., non-native invasive plants destabilizing soils and increasing risks of wildland fires).

The Conservation Branch works to avoid, minimize and mitigate such conflicts, while sustaining the natural and training environments, and long-term mission of the MAGTFTC. This often requires rapid responses to protect organisms protected by federal laws, other species warranting proactive conservation (e.g., sensitive, at-risk, or statelisted species), and other organisms that are also safety hazards (e.g., rattlesnakes). The rapid responses are critical to alleviate safety issues. They support ecosystem management, and they are installation requirements that help military training continue

with little or no delay. Rapid response efforts typically require field visits for animal disposition, and surveys refine management of subsidized species.