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area,” Mr. George said. More than 2,000 acres of the Cape is dedi- cated to preserving the natural scrub habitat, which can only raise the number of scrub jays in the area. “But we cannot manage the environment just for scrub jays alone,” Mr. Stokes said. “All the animal habitats in the Cape are not exactly the same, but we manage them all the best that we can.” The environmental program is a holistic program, he added. “It is all about human health, protecting the environment and mak- ing good use of all our resources. We care about doing the right thing, we care about the mission and we care for our environ- ment. Our air and water are much cleaner today than the past 40 years.” And making sure the water around Cape Canaveral AFS is clean is a team of biolo- gists contracted by Cape Canaveral officials. “We do biological inventories of the waters that include water-quality monitoring, manatee oversights, and fisheries research as we build an inventory of all the fish found in the Cape,” said Eric Reyier, a fisheries biologist with Dynamac Corp. “There is heavy industry going on around here with the space mission, and the assumption is that it is detrimental to the fish and wildlife. As it turns out, a lot of this area is vastly undeveloped so the habitat and wildlife are actually in excellent shape as compared to other areas along the East Coast. Everybody is working together to effectively manage the plants and animals that are out here on the Cape.” One of the species that is thriving in the area is the alligator. If there is a body of water on the Cape, you can rest assured that there is one of the flourishing reptiles close by. Checking alligators’ health shows the condition of the environment for the animal and also for the people who work here. “We catch alligators so we can take blood and urine samples for analysis,” said Russell Lowers, a wildlife biologist with Dynamac Corp. “Alligators eat everything in the environment from fish to turtles to birds and from raccoons to pigs. If there are any contaminants in the ecosys- tem, they will be gathered and eaten by this animal, where they would be stored in its body in fat and excreted in its urine. We run a hormone analysis and the toxicology on the animals to get a good snapshot of what’s going on within the area.” Keeping the Cape environmentally friendly takes time, effort from members of the 45th CES, and money – an average annual budget of about $25 million — that goes toward compliance, restoration, con- servation and pollution prevention. It also takes compassion to understand how to care for the entire Air Force station that is made up of wetlands, coastal maritime hammocks, coastal strands, coastal dunes, and the longest undeveloped beach in Florida, which makes a perfect nesting place for sea turtles. Three species of sea turtles — logger- heads, green turtles and leatherback turtles — nest on Cape Canaveral AFS beaches. All sea turtles are listed as threatened or endangered, but the leatherback is listed as critically endangered. Nesting levels for the loggerhead in Florida have declined from almost 86,000 nests in 1998 to just more than 45,000 in 2007 in Florida. The global leatherback sea turtle number of nesting females has gone from an estimated 115,000 in 1980 to somewhere between 26,000 to 43,000 recently. Thousands of nine-banded armadillo can be found roaming the grounds of Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. The armadillo is a leathery-shelled mammal, a cousin to anteaters and sloth. Armadillo is Spanish for “little armored one.”. The rosate spoonbill is a threatened species of bird found mostly in swamplands and the Gulf Coast. A spoonbill is commonly misidentified by Florida tourists as a flamingo. The Florida Scrub Jay is one of 11 protected species at Cape Canaveral, Fla. The Scrub Jay does not migrate and lives in oak scrubs where it defends the acorn crops. Base officials are sanctioning 2,000 acres of land to provide a natural scrub habitat. Wildlife biologists transport a 10-foot alligator to the shores of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The biologists provide environmental monitoring and ecological studies to help preserve the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. www.airManonline.af.mil 44 @PATRICK