Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Alex Van’tLeven | 170609-N-LQ926-166 PORTLAND Ore., (June 9, 2017) Cmdr. David W. Walton, Jr., executive...... read more read more
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PORTLAND, Ore. – Commander, Navy Region Northwest (CNRNW) hosted an environmental partner agency engagement event with local, federal, and state land use and stewardship organizations, at the Portland Fire Bureau during Portland Rose Festival Fleet Week, in Portland, Oregon, June 9.
Local representatives and personnel from the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forestry Service, Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife attended the event, which featured informational presentations on the mission of CNRNW, its area of responsibility, and other presentations and displays designed to raise awareness of the various missions and programs being conducted by the Navy in the Pacific Northwest.
The event is part of an initiative to utilize upcoming Navy fleet weeks on the West Coast as an opportunity to showcase the Navy’s role in environmental stewardship, innovation, and protection, and as a way to build relationships with other government agencies.
“This is our first time doing this. It was our first time to talk about environmental issues, and I think it went extremely well,” said Rear Adm. Gary Mayes, commander, Navy Region Northwest, who hosted the event. “It’s important for the Navy to continue to do this because the Navy can’t do what it needs to do without the support of our partner agencies.”
Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet, started the event by speaking about the importance of maintaining working relationships between the U.S. Navy and the local environmental agencies whom, in many cases, manage land that is utilized by the military.
“To me, this is one of the best things that we can get out of fleet week. Engaging with people who we work with every day,” said Tyson. “We need to work with you. We need to build relationships. We need to understand each other and what we do and how we complement each other.”
Once Tyson concluded, a brief detailing the mission of CNRNW was conducted by Mayes, which was followed by a question and answer session. One topic discussed during the presentation was the roles various agencies play in carrying out larger regional missions, such as disaster relief, combating forest fires, and search and rescue.
“In recent years particularly, given our work in wildland fire and the calling in of the National Guard, it has gotten more and more common to work with other agencies in collaboration, so these kinds of events where you can understand each other’s missions a little bit better really help build that foundation of trust, so when an emergency does come you know who’s on the other end of the phone,” said Shoni Pilip-Florea, director of communication and community engagement, Pacific Northwest region, U.S. Forest Services. “It helps smooth out the process. It certainly has become more common recently, and I think it’s been really valuable.”
Following the presentation portion of the event, attendees received a briefing on naval electronic warfare and a naval environment and energy innovation brief, before arriving for a ship tour at the Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Jackson (LCS 6), which is currently moored in Portland for Fleet Week.
“I hope one of the takeaways was the importance of establishing relationships early, not when a disaster happens, but before a disaster,” said Mayes. “I also hope they take away a better understanding of their Navy.”
| Date Taken: | 06.09.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.10.2017 00:49 |
| Story ID: | 237178 |
| Location: | PORTLAND, OR, US |
| Web Views: | 214 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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