WASHINGTON — Guam's tropical forests are silent. The rattling, screeching and cawing of the island's native birds have been erased by the brown tree snake, a devastating predator accidentally introduced to the island shortly after World War II.
Today, just as U.S. government biologists hope they may be able to reintroduce endangered birds, a new threat to the nearly extinct species is looming: a major expansion of U.S. military facilities on Guam is expected to sharply reduce wildlife habitat.
The future of birds on Guam may provide a telling first test of new U.S. policy, proposed by the Bush administration and approved by Congress last year, which exempts military facilities from the "critical habitat" provisions of the Endangered Species Act.
These provisions required the military to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine if any of its actions would harm such species as the birds of Guam.
Caught in the tug-of-war are the tropical forests on Andersen Air Force Base. The Fish and Wildlife Service says they are essential for the conservation of the endangered Micronesian kingfisher and the Mariana crow.
The agency initially proposed designating 24,803 acres of Guam's forests as critical habitat for the birds. After Congress gave the military the exemption from critical habitat, the agency slashed its proposal to 376 acres.
It is not clear how much of the forest would be cut down for the base expansion, but the majority of the island's suitable habitat is on base land.
The Air Force says it wants to develop the land to ensure its military readiness in the region. Guam, an unincorporated territory of the U.S., is a major air and naval staging ground in the Pacific.
No blueprint of the military's plans for Andersen is publicly available. But Col. Steve Wolborsky, the vice commander of the 36th Air Expeditionary Wing, said the Air Force expected to spend $1 billion to $2 billion to develop Andersen over the next several years, according to American Forces Press Services.
Gordon Rodda, a U.S. Geological Survey biologist who was on Guam last month, said he was told to expect that most of the forest would be cut down for development. He said the message was: "Don't think buildings, think city."
Rodda and several other biologists took the unusual step of raising alarms about the effect that the military's exemption from environmental provisions would have on Guam's birds.
