Beale awarded for innovative environmental restoration practices

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Ramon A. Adelan
  • 9th Reconnaissance Wing Public Affairs

The Secretary of Defense awarded Beale Air Force Base the 2016 Department of Defense Environmental Award for Environmental Restoration, Installation Aug 5, 2016, here.

The installation received the award for making progress toward cleaning contamination from past defense activities, maintaining partnerships to improve species habitat and minimizing groundwater contamination.

“I’m impressed with the installation as a whole and the environmental restoration team,” said Col. Larry Broadwell, 9th Reconnaissance Wing commander. “They’ve shown dedication to caring for our installation and developing creative solutions to remove contamination while caring for the species which habitat the base.”

 

Beale is environmentally responsible for approximately 23,000 acres, to include the Lincoln Receiver Site in Lincoln, California. 17,000 acres of the base is undeveloped and consists of riparian areas and wetlands.

The wetlands have challenged personnel to be innovative in how they care for the installation’s environment. Beale successfully developed an excavation process, which satisfies the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s guidelines for ground disturbing activities near sensitive species habitat. This practice saved the Air Force millions of dollars.