Camp Camouflage

Former military base, Fort Ord, was closed in 1994 and 2 decades later a large portion of the base (14,000+ acres) was designated as a National Monument. As of 2023, over 6,000 acres of this national monument is closed to the public and contaminated with unexploded ordinance as a result of weapons testing during the base’s active years.
This project seeks to develop a plan that would progressively reopen this closed section of the national monument while simultaneously ensuring it is safe and contaminant free for the public. There is also an aim to expand wildlife corridors and natural systems to aid in conservation, as well as increase public education regarding these systems to provide a future which more adequately values the ecology of this site. Time is a major component of this site, as it will take a lot of planning for the future to remedy and solve problems presented by the site’s past. With time as a major factor, there is precedent for reconsidering how trail design relates to short and long term change and impact.