Elliott Singer, News Editor
CSU Monterey Bay mountain bikers and hikers are going to start having to go a little further to reach their playground. From Claymores to Bounding Anti-Personnel Mines, hand grenades to spent casings, Fort Ord has it all and that is about to change.
The Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA) entered into an Environmental Services Cooperative Agreement (ESCA) with the Army in order to remove any unexploded ordinance in seven years instead of the projected 15.
“We know that our quality of life and our tourism is all driven off the beauty and the nature around us,” said Stan Cook, the ESCA project manager. Cleaning and taking care of the land is “like money for the bank for us.”
According to FORA’s Base Reuse Plan, 62 percent of Fort Ord will be saved for habitat management and recreation while future developments will focus on land that has already been built on by the Army.
“The whole idea was to try and take all the development you are going to do in the future and put it where the development was in the past,” said Cook, “it is one of those sustainability ideas.”
The “remediation” of ordinance will affect bikers, hikers and anyone else who uses the land. The area beginning at 8th Avenue and going east past the roadblock on Inter-Garrison Road and south past Giggling Road will have limited access until 2011.
“It is a big deal for us,” explained Biology Professor Trish Sevene who came to CSUMB with her husband and Kinesiology Professor Kent Adams. “We walk the dogs, go hiking and ride bikes…it is important for students and for faculty,” she explained while they were walking their cola and latte colored Swiss Mountain Dogs, Furya and Bodie.
Trails operated by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will remain open and be useable thanks to special “access corridors.” These corridors will begin at Giggling Road, 8th Avenue, Parker Flats Cutoff, as well as at the trailhead near East Campus on Inter-Garrison. The corridors will vary in length from just over a half mile to about a mile.
There will be “buffer zones” that will follow the clean up areas. Buffer zones will move and vary based on the size of the suspected munitions. They will only be in place while someone is working.
“If someone is working in one area and digging, they have the potential of setting off an explosive device,” said Cook. “If they do, it would not only impact them but would throw shrapnel and other things up to a certain distance.” A road or trail will be closed if it is within one of the buffer zones.
The land along Inter-Garrison is CSU Monterey Bay property and is zoned as commercial land in the Fort Ord Reuse Plan of 1997.
“In our master plan the parcel is marked a future development reserve with the western most 50 acres zoned for Employee Housing,” said Mehul Mody, assistant director of Campus Planning and Design. “In summary, no funded building is anticipated during the next decade in the area,” he continued in an email.
ESCA will post signs similar to BLM’s signs around the trails that are due for closure. They are plastic so that they do not become highly collectable trophies and are due to begin showing up later this winter.
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