Photo By Stanley James | Ronnie Rogers, Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Marianas Cultural...... read more read more
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam – The Marine Corps Base (MCB) Camp Blaz Guam Cultural Resources Team (GCRT) received the 2021 Secretary of the Navy Environmental Award for Cultural Resources Management Individual or Team for providing innovative solutions to project management, employee development, promoting transparency, and ongoing mitigation efforts during the responsible buildup process of MCB Camp Blaz, Oct. 28, 2021.
The team is comprised of Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) environmental specialists, engineers and archeologists assigned to Joint Region Marianas and MCB Camp Blaz for the implementation of the 2011 Programmatic Agreement (PA) and Marine Corps relocation to Guam.
“The cultural resources team has been essential to the responsible construction of Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz,” said Col. Christopher Bopp, the MCB Camp Blaz commanding officer. “Camp Blaz is the first Marine Corps base that has been built in over 60 years, which comes with many unique challenges. The collaborative efforts of the GCRT have saved money, improved efficiencies and mitigated impacts to the environment.”
The award nomination letter identified several of the team’s accomplishments related to the oversight and management of 50,452 acres of land and 247 square miles of water, located on the islands of Tinian, Farallon de Medinilla, and Guam.
For example, the GCRT identified useful trees and medicinal plants at future construction sites and later donated them to the public. More than 160 trees were transferred to the Government of Guam (GovGuam) for distribution to local artisans and over 100 native plant specimens were collected by medicinal practitioners. Robert Taitano Sr., a master carver with over 45 years of experience, described the search for suitable wood on Guam as “increasingly difficult. Finding trees suitable for carving usually requires an intense hike and the wood itself can be very heavy to lift.” He said the program made it easier for him to create more carvings.
The team was also awarded for increased transparency and outreach. Archaeologists on the team participated in numerous site visits, providing updated information about cultural resource management activities to environmental conservationists, members of the government and key stakeholders.
Additionally, the GCRT hosts an annual 2011 PA workshop to discuss progress and changes from the preceding year. This creates an open forum with GovGuam and key stakeholders to identify issues that need to be resolved, discuss possible solutions and improve processes.
“The work the cultural resources team has done is top notch,” said Al Borja, NAVFAC Marianas environmental director, MCB Camp Blaz. “In terms of management actions, we’re a leader in the industry. We’re also committed to developing our team members to ensure our future actions continue to meet the same high standards of cultural resource management.”
MCB Camp Blaz will continue to work with our partners, by exchanging information and implementing deliberate, cooperative measures during the responsible buildup process.
An open library of agreement documents, reports, public outreach information, and consultation documents can be found on the NAVFAC Pacific website at https://www.navfac.navy.mil/navfac_worldwide/pacific/about_us/cultural_resources.html.
| Date Taken: | 10.28.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 11.02.2021 18:58 |
| Story ID: | 408408 |
| Location: | ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, GU |
| Web Views: | 226 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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