Ft Ord National Monument

I took the opportunity yesterday to attend the dedication ceremony for the new Fort Ord National Monument. It was a beautiful morning some 6 miles deep in the Ft Ord back country. While Marina was covered in the morning fog, the dedication area, and much of the Ft Ord area was full of bright sunshine.

As I heard speaker after speaker talk about the virtues of the Ft Ord National Monument you could hear the sounds of the Ferrari’s racing around Laguna Seca sometimes making it hard to hear the words. It was a reminder, spoken by Congressman Farr, that Ft Ord means different things to different people. His example was the Ferrari’s and the mortarboards representing the morning’s graduation ceremonies at CSUMB.

Many may not know but Laguna Seca was at one time part of the Ft Ord base but was gifted to Monterey County as a Park in the early 1960’s. Since then it has provided millions of dollars to our area’s coffers in tourism and service revenues. The Ft Ord National Monument may also add to our regions revenues over the years but that’s not really the point. The point is that the lands that make up Ft Ord are for everyone.

There are lands for recreation, from racing to hiking, biking and more. There is land for education as represented by CSUMB, MPC, Chartwell, York and others. There are lands for development like The Dunes, Marina Heights, the Highlands and more. What do all of these areas really mean for the region?

Jobs - jobs that left our local economy when Ft. Ord closed. They could be jobs in recreation, education, research, medicine, manufacturing and in areas that we have not even thought about or considered. Jobs that will help to stabilize our local economy, perhaps even diversify it so that we are not as dependant on the cyclical nature of tourism.

So we celebrate the dedication of the Ft Ord National Monument as it sets aside forever, over half of the former Ft Ord lands that can and will be used by all of us. We also celebrate the other lands that make up Ft Ord as they represent the economic opportunities needed to sustain our areas economy.

More later