The Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Fleet Logistics Center (FLC) Puget Sound Fuel Depot has won a US Navy Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Environmental Award. Vice Admiral William R. Burke, deputy chief of naval operations for fleet readiness and logistics, announced the awards on February 22.
The Puget Sound Fuel Depot, near Port Orchard, WA was the site of the Beaver Creek Habitat Restoration Project, for which GeoEngineers was lead consultant. The nine-year project was a collaborative effort by GeoEngineers, biologists and engineers from NAVSUP FLC Fleet Logistics Center Puget Sound, Navy Region Northwest, US Army Corps of Engineers and the Suquamish Tribe.
Over the course of the ambitious project, GeoEngineers and its project partners removed several impediments to fish passage, added fish-friendly culverts and a bridge, and fully restored the stream channel and floodplain from the Manchester Fuel Depot property line to the estuary where Beaver Creek enters Clam Bay in Puget Sound.
The CNO granted awards to 30 projects in 10 categories for fiscal year 2011. The FLC Puget Sound was one of three winners in the Natural Resources Conservation, Small Installation category. The CNO award winners will compete for the Secretary of the Navy Environmental Awards, with the winners to be announced at an award presentation ceremony planned for June in Washington, D.C.
The CNO Environmental Award acknowledges the many projects the Fleet Logistics Center has undertaken as part of its Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan. In addition to Beaver Creek, projects have included tank farm reforestation, salmonid fish feeding, Olympia oyster restoration and Christmas bird counts, among others. According to the Navy, the Beaver Creek program has earned news coverage from a number of local media and gained national attention due to its scope and detail.