Ecology
Camp Pendleton was built on a wide swath of coastal land that once supported an estuary at the mouth of the Santa Margarita River and extensive salt marsh habitat. Outlying land within the base is made up of floodplain, oak woodlands, coastal dunes and bluffs, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and several types of wetlands, including ephemeral wetlands such as vernal pools. Wildfire is not uncommon. Research in ecology takes place in undeveloped areas of base, which contain examples of rare and endangered California habitat types. The Department of Defense has issued management plans for various ecosystems on this territory.
Land within the base still includes breeding habitat for birds such as the Western Snowy Plover and California Gnatcatcher. The coastal bluffs have many of the few existing specimens of the Pendleton button-celery, which was named for the base. Rare mammals on the base include the Pacific pocket mouse and Stephens' kangaroo rat.
Read more about this topic: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton
Famous quotes containing the word ecology:
“... the fundamental principles of ecology govern our lives wherever we live, and ... we must wake up to this fact or be lost.”
—Karin Sheldon (b. c. 1945)