I checked into it last night, as a letter came through on the KMEC list.
http://pvnm.com/-m-M_x-E-C
Of course, there's *no* munitions testing being planned at the cadet training area that's training mission is hoping to expand.
And it was wholly inappropriate for this topic to have been inserted into the discussion stream at the recent meeting, as it was both off-topic, and inflammatory.
But, that said, it's an interesting thing to look at. For instance, did you know that they stopped bombing at Vieques in Puerto Rico a few years back? We were broadcasting it when they were protesting it. Now that it's over, it looks like it's returned nearly to normal:
Here's a link:
+18° 8' 20.40", -65° 17' 7.43"
http://pvnm.com/-m-M_x-E-C
If you look to the northeast, you can even see similar land in similar wind patterns, and it's clear that the vegetation line is natural (this area was different from the outset).
With that known, I was able to look into the island mentioned on the KMEC list. It's called Kahoolawe, and it's also been removed from the active munitions testing area roster (some time back).
And though the line in the KMEC list referred to how desolate it was, from Google Maps, it looks comparative to other similar areas. It's failure of ecology is it's low altitude, as is made clear in the article in the Wiki.
In other words, yeah, it looks like crap, but it looked that way before they bombed it, too, which is why they paid the guy who was using it to raise cattle on to bomb it, since it wouldn't really make it look a lot worse (though the hole in the lower left-hand corner of the island was quite an alteration, I can't say it's ugly).
And short of putting up a wind-trap, or some other source of water, it's going to stay that way.
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