Camp Gonsalves is a

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionary ...

jungle warfare Jungle warfare or woodland warfare is warfare in forests, jungles, or similar environments. The term encompasses military operations affected by the terrain, climate, vegetation, and wildlife of densely-wooded areas, as well as the strategies a ...

training area located in northern

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, across the villages of

Kunigami is a List of villages in Japan, village in Kunigami District, Okinawa, Kunigami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It occupies the north tip of Okinawa Island, with the East China Sea to the west, Pacific Ocean to the east, and Municipalities ...

and

Higashi Higashi (Japanese 東 ''east'') may refer to: Places in Japan *Higashi, Shibuya *Higashi, Fukushima *Higashi, Okinawa *Higashi-ku, Fukuoka *Higashi-ku, Hiroshima *Higashi-ku, Nagoya *Higashi-ku, Sapporo People *Keigo Higashi, Japanese footballer ...

. Established in 1958, it is the largest U.S. training facility in Okinawa. The camp is located in the

Yanbaru is the Okinawan and Kunigami name given to the forested northern part of Okinawa Island in Japan. Spanning the northern villages of Higashi, Kunigami, and Ōgimi, Yambaru contains some of the last large surviving tracts of subtropical rainfore ...

forest protected area, raising long time ecological concerns enhanced by the 2016 plan to build new helipads.

Terrain

Also known as the NTA (Northern Training Area), and since 1998 as the JWTC (Jungle Warfare Training Center) it occupies of jungle in Northern

. The hilly and rugged terrain is topped with single and double canopy forests. The region supplies the densely populated south of the island with drinking water. As part of the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Geography of Taiwan, Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands (Ōsumi Islands, Ōsumi, Tokara Islands, Tokara and A ...

subtropical evergreen forests, most of the area surrounding JWTC is designated as a national forest by the Government of Japan. The area is home to 24 endangered species including the

Okinawa rail The Okinawa rail (''Hypotaenidia okinawae'') is a species of bird in the rail family, Rallidae. It is endemic to Okinawa Island in Japan where it is known as the . Its existence was only confirmed in 1978 and it was formally described in 1981 al ...

Amami woodcock The Amami woodcock (''Scolopax mira'') is a medium-sized wader. It is slightly larger and longer-legged than the Eurasian woodcock, and may be conspecific. This species is a restricted-range endemic found only in forests on Amami Ōshima, Okinaw ...

, Pryers woodpecker, and the

Ryukyu robin The Ryukyu robin (''Larvivora komadori'') is a bird endemic to the Ryūkyū Islands, of Japan. The Okinawa robin (''Larvivora namiyei'') previously was considered a subspecies. The specific name ''komadori'' is, somewhat confusingly, the comm ...

. There are three species of pit viper venomous snakes, the

Okinawa habu Okinawa habu may refer to: * '' Protobothrops elegans'' or '' Trimeresurus elegans'', a.k.a. the elegant pitviper or Sakishima habu, a venomous snake found in the southern Ryukyu Islands of Japan. * '' Protobothrops flavoviridis'' or '' Trimeresuru ...

, hime habu, and the Sakishima habu. JWTC supports the local Government of Japan

small Asian mongoose Small Asian mongoose is a common name applied to two mammals which were formerly considered to be a single species: * Javan mongoose * Small Indian mongoose Mammal common names {{Short pages monitor