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Department of Defense Range Tours A Look at How Military Training Operations Impact Natural Resources and Endangered Species Kauai: U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility On the western shores of the Island of Kauai sits the Pacific Missile Range Facility. Comprised of 1,991 acres of Navy-owned land and 69 acres of leased state and local land, the Navy conducts a variety of range operations on the facility known as Barking Sands, including radar tracking, missile assembly and launch, and aviation support. Barking Sands is open to public use for such activities as swimming, surfing, and sunning on weekday nights and 24 hours on weekends and holidays, except during special operations. Participants in the Department of Defense's Range Tour learned about the Pacific Missile Range Facility's natural resources mission statement and operations. After the briefing, the group walked the beaches of Barking Sands, just off Majors Bay. During the short, half-hour stroll, the group collected debris in plastic trash bags while observing the native vegetation found on the Nohili Dunes on the northern part of the base (pictured above). Just offshore of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility is habitat for the endangered Hawaiian monk seal and threatened green sea turtles. Although difficult to identify, the dark spot in the center of the photo is a threatened green sea turtle swimming in the surf off Barking Sands Beach. Read more: Back to Range Tour main page. Day 1, O'ahu Island: U.S. Marine Corps Base Day 2, O'ahu's Waimea Valley: The Community and the Army Working to Protect the North Shore Day 3, Kauai: The Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility Photos: Maribeth Oakes/Sierra Club Collection; all rights reserved. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club