Military Land Managers Research Articles

Water Quality & natural resource management on military training lands in Central Texas: Improved decision support via Bayesian Networks

The conservation and management of military training lands has long evolved around the unique criteria for maintaining a viable fighting force. In lieu of this primary mission, landscapes have often experienced accelerated degradation and loss of structural and functional capabilities for providing desired ecosystem services (including the basic training mission). In an effort to aid military land managers as well as anyone who makes and implements decisions for natural resource management; we support an innovative approach towards the integration of evidence and the application of diagnosis and prognosis for the decision-making process through the use of Bayesian Networks. Illustrated below is an example for utilizing Bayesian Networks in the decision support process. We utilized data and experience from ongoing efforts at the Fort Hood Military Installation to build the initial network; then integrate expert input from authors and engineers in propagating the node relationships. Through this approach, we demonstrate how military land managers can integrate varying streams of evidence, including empirical, model generated or expert opinion, into a network for decision support. The example below is developed based upon land management issues within the U.S. Army, but the process can be adapted and implemented across most all ecosystems under some form of land management.

Proactive Strategies for Protecting Species: Pre-Listing Conservation and the Endangered Species Act. Edited by C. Josh Donlan. Berkeley (California): University of California Press. $65.00. xix + 260 p.; ill.; index. ISBN: 978-0-520-27688-8 (hc); 978-0-520-96049-7 (eb). 2015.

Previous articleNext article FreeConservation BiologyProactive Strategies for Protecting Species: Pre-Listing Conservation and the Endangered Species Act. Edited by C. Josh Donlan. Berkeley (California): University of California Press. $65.00. xix + 260 p.; ill.; index. ISBN: 978-0-520-27688-8 (hc); 978-0-520-96049-7 (eb). 2015.Erica FleishmanErica FleishmanFish, Wildlife & Conservation Biology and Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado Search for more articles by this author Fish, Wildlife & Conservation Biology and Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, ColoradoPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThe premise of the edited volume Proactive Strategies for Protecting Species is eminently sensible. Creation of incentives for conservation on private land that prevent species from becoming endangered is much more likely to meet ecological and economic goals than reliance on regulatory requirements after species are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). Yet this practical concept is not new. In 1993, for example, Defenders of Wildlife examined ways in which economic incentives might be incorporated into enforcement of the ESA (W. E. Hudson. 1993. Building Economic Incentives into the Endangered Species Act. Washington (DC): Defenders of Wildlife). Similarly, for more than 20 years, safe harbor agreements have given nonfederal landowners in the United States the assurance that if their actions promote recovery of listed species, their future land uses will not be restricted. Proactive Strategies for Protecting Species offers numerous ideas for financial mechanisms that might encourage higher proportions of landowners to participate in conservation programs. The contributing authors’ proposals might be more convincing if the book examined the impediments to proactive conservation agreements in greater detail. In the introductory chapter, for instance, Donlan and Rothacker note that candidate conservation agreements can be hamstrung not only by a dearth of financial incentives but by a long approval process and requirements for details about future activities that may not be feasible at the time an agreement is sought. The chapters largely sidestep the question of whether novel economic instruments could surmount bureaucracy and the traditional reluctance of regulatory agencies to encourage innovation in conservation, or why these economic instruments might succeed where previous tools have not.This volume is organized into three parts. The first part includes an overview of prelisting conservation, the provisions of incidental take—such as avoidance, minimization, and mitigation—on private lands, and a number of perspectives on the effectiveness of prelisting programs relative to postlisting actions. Part Two addresses potential designs of prelisting programs. A chapter by Sorice and Abel is noteworthy for its lucid discussion of variation in landowner motivations and, by extension, potential incentive schemes. The third part includes case studies of prelisting conservation and a summary of the book’s primary concepts. I appreciated the diversity of land uses represented in the text, from agriculture and forestry to energy development to military training. The diversity of geographic areas and ecosystems presented in the volume also is high. Additional references to past and contemporary legal scholarship on conservation incentives in the context of the ESA would have complemented the ecological and economic expertise evident in the book.As the authors note, obstacles to reform the ESA are myriad. However, if the substantial hurdles to creative and constructive regulation are alleviated, the work of Donlan et al. will be a fine addition to existing incentive structures. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Quarterly Review of Biology Volume 92, Number 1March 2017 Published in association with Stony Brook University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/690863 For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

A Statistical Approach for Predicting Grassland Degradation in Disturbance-Driven Landscapes

Maintaining a land base that supports safe and realistic training operations is a significant challenge for military land managers which can be informed by frequent monitoring of land condition in relation to management practices. This study explores the relationship between fire and trends in tallgrass prairie vegetation at military and non-military sites in the Kansas Flint Hills. The response variable was the long-term linear trend (2001-2010) of surface greenness measured by MODIS NDVI using BFAST time series trend analysis. Explanatory variables included fire regime (frequency and seasonality) and spatial strata based on existing management unit boundaries. Several non-spatial generalized linear models (GLM) were computed to explain trends by fire regime and/or stratification. Spatialized versions of the GLMs were also constructed. For non-spatial models at the military site, fire regime explained little (4%) of the observed surface greenness trend compared to strata alone (7% - 26%). The non-spatial and spatial models for the non-military site performed better for each explanatory variable and combination tested with fire regime. Existing stratifications contained much of the spatial structure in model residuals. Fire had only a marginal effect on surface greenness trends at the military site despite the use of burning as a grassland management tool. Interestingly, fire explained more of the trend at the non-military site and models including strata improved explanatory power. Analysis of spatial model predictors based on management unit stratification suggested ways to reduce the number of strata while achieving similar performance and may benefit managers of other public areas lacking sound data regarding land usage.

Off Course? A Career in Archaeology Outside of the Academy

Off Course? A Career in Archaeology Outside of the Academy

Monitoring vegetation change and dynamics on U.S. Army training lands using satellite image time series analysis

Given the significant land holdings of the U.S. Department of Defense, and the importance of those lands to support a variety of inherently damaging activities, application of sound natural resource conservation principles and proactive monitoring practices are necessary to manage military training lands in a sustainable manner. This study explores a method for, and the utility of, analyzing vegetation condition and trends as sustainability indicators for use by military commanders and land managers, at both the national and local levels, in identifying when and where vegetation-related environmental impacts might exist. The BFAST time series decomposition method was applied to a ten-year MODIS NDVI time series dataset for the Fort Riley military installation and Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS) in northeastern Kansas. Imagery selected for time-series analysis were 16-day MODIS NDVI (MOD13Q1 Collection 5) composites capable of characterizing vegetation change induced by human activities and climate variability. Three indicators related to gradual interannual or abrupt intraannual vegetation change for each pixel were calculated from the trend component resulting from the BFAST decomposition. Assessment of gradual interannual NDVI trends showed the majority of Fort Riley experienced browning between 2001 and 2010. This result is supported by validation using high spatial resolution imagery. The observed versus expected frequency of linear trends detected at Fort Riley and KPBS were significantly different and suggest a causal link between military training activities and/or land management practices. While both sites were similar with regards to overall disturbance frequency and the relative spatial extents of monotonic or interrupted trends, vegetation trajectories after disturbance were significantly different. This suggests that the type and magnitude of disturbances characteristic of each location result in distinct post-disturbance vegetation responses. Using a remotely-sensed vegetation index time series with BFAST and the indicators outlined here provides a consistent and relatively rapid assessment of military training lands with applicability outside of grassland biomes. Characterizing overall trends and disturbance responses of vegetation can promote sustainable use of military lands and assist land managers in targeting specific areas for various rehabilitation activities.

Spatial and temporal assessment of cumulative disturbance impacts due to military training, burning, haying, and their interactions on land condition of Fort Riley.

The effects of military training activities on the land condition of Army installations vary spatially and temporally. Training activities observably degrade land condition while also increasing biodiversity and stabilizing ecosystems. Moreover, other anthropogenic activities regularly occur on military lands such as prescribed burns and agricultural haying-adding to the dynamics of land condition. Thus, spatially and temporally assessing the impacts of military training, prescribed burning, agricultural haying, and their interactions is critical to the management of military lands. In this study, the spatial distributions and patterns of military training-induced disturbance frequency were derived using plot observation and point observation-based method, at Fort Riley, Kansas from 1989 to 2001. Moreover, spatial and variance analysis of cumulative impacts due to military training, burning, haying, and their interactions on the land condition of Fort Riley were conducted. The results showed that: (1) low disturbance intensity dominated the majority of the study area with exception of concentrated training within centralized areas; (2) high and low values of disturbance frequency were spatially clustered and had spatial patterns that differed significantly from a random distribution; and (3) interactions between prescribed burning and agricultural haying were not significant in terms of either soil erosion or disturbance intensity although their means and variances differed significantly between the burned and non-burned areas and between the hayed and non-hayed areas.

Identification of superfluous roads in terms of sustainable military land carrying capacity and environment

A great challenge the US military land managers are often faced with is how to optimize road networks in order to maintain roads (including all roads, trails, and paths) for the purpose of military training and reducing negative impacts on environment. In this study, a methodology was developed to identify superfluous roads for being closed in terms of both sustainable military land carrying capacity and environment for Fort Riley. In this method, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, and landscape analysis technologies were combined to derive various spatial data layers of factors that had significant impacts on both military training and environment. The factors included maintenance cost of roads, road access area, military training intensity, soil erosion, water quality, landscape fragmentation, and noise production. The factors were quantified and normalized. A spatial multicriteria decision was then developed to obtain the weights of the factors, combine the data layers, and derive a priority map of all the roads for being closed. This map summarized the negative and positive impacts of the factors on environment and military land carrying capacity and can provide the US military land managers with useful guidelines and tools for determining superfluous roads in terms of both sustainable military training and environment. It is expected this effort can provide a method to quickly ascertain which roads are most cost-effective for being closed without hindering the mission and at the same time with benefits for environmental protection and thus provide the land managers with a comprehensive analysis and assessment of alternatives at their disposal.

Response of soil microbial and invertebrate communities to tracked vehicle disturbance in tallgrass prairie

Soil biota drive fundamental ecosystem processes such as decomposition, nutrient cycling, and maintenance of soil structure. They are especially active in grassland ecosystems such as the tallgrass prairie, where much of the net primary productivity is allocated belowground and ultimately processed by heterotrophic soil organisms. Because both soil microbes and soil fauna display perturbation responses that integrate the physical, chemical, and biological changes to their environment, the structure of belowground microbial and faunal communities is used widely as an indication of the ecological status of soils. To investigate the effects of military training on tallgrass prairie soil communities, a replicated small-plot study of tracked vehicle disturbance effects was initiated at Fort Riley, Kansas in 2003. This article reports subsequent rates of recovery for soil microbial and invertebrate communities over a range of disturbances encompassing different soil types (silty clay loam and silt loam soils), environmental conditions (wet vs. dry traffic events), traffic intensities (single vs. repeated traffic), and track areas (curve vs. straightaway). Microbial biomass in wet silty clay loam soil treatments and on curve areas in silt loam soil was suppressed for 1–2 years following disturbance but increased to levels greater than undisturbed plots in all treatments by the fourth year. Nematode abundance, family richness, trophic composition, and community structure also displayed maximum disturbance for wet treatments and curve areas. Trophic composition and community structure continued to exhibit disturbance effects throughout the 4-year study period, even after recovery of nematode abundance. Earthworm abundance displayed the most severe reductions (78% across soil types, treatments and areas) immediately following tank traffic but, like microbial biomass, subsequently increased to levels greater than undisturbed plots. Nematode community structure provided a reliable and comprehensive assessment of the status of the soil food web and was an effective bioindicator of ecosystem recovery following traffic disturbance. In addition, given the dominant role of earthworms in ecosystem processes and their extreme sensitivity to tracked vehicle disturbance, it is recommended that this group be included in monitoring protocols for military training land managers.

A Procedure to Extrapolate Vegetation Cover Estimates Over Large Arid and Semi‐arid Regions Using Multiple Spatial Resolution Imagery

Typically, land degradation on arid and semi‐arid military training and testing lands in the desert Southwestern United States is associated with a decrease in total vegetative cover. Long‐term field surveys have been established by the military to measure and monitor total vegetative cover over time. However, field methods are not cost effective due to the large area of training lands, nearly 3 million acres in the California deserts alone, that must be sampled. Measurements recorded at individual transects must still be spatially extrapolated to produce a complete census of the installation. Remote sensing has been used to spatially extrapolate such field measurements over larger areas, but in the past, imagery has lacked sufficient spatial resolution to accurately estimate total vegetative cover. In this study, nested, high resolution imagery was collected at different spatial resolutions for study sites at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in the south‐central Mojave Desert of southern California. Vegetation cover estimates derived from these multiple resolution images were examined as a possible surrogate for sampling total vegetative cover in the field. Results indicate that a high correlation exits between field measurements of cover and estimates of cover derived from imagery. However, similar to field measurements, if the intent is to estimate total vegetative cover across large geographic areas, high resolution imagery is also costly in terms of collection, processing, and interpretation because a single image generally covers a small geographic area. Therefore, a protocol to scale detailed observations of total cover from high resolution imagery to lower resolution imagery that covers a larger geographic area was developed and tested. The results of this study indicate that a relatively high correlation exists between vegetation cover estimates derived from high resolution imagery and image brightness derived from a nested, lower resolution image. This protocol now allows military land managers to sample site‐specific areas with high resolution imagery and extrapolate absolute estimates of vegetation cover across training and testing lands with more cost effective, lower resolution imagery that provides complete coverage of an installation.

War spawns pollution on and off the battlefield

While war may be as old as history, the study of its environmental health effects is just beginning, with Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan as its laboratories. Age-old problems still follow war: physical and emotional disruption, lack of food, shelter, water, and sanitation, risk of infectious diseases, and psychological trauma. But modern warfare can also introduce broader environmental threats, ranging from industrial and military pollution to pesticide and radiation exposure. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has recently begun examining some of the thousands of affected sites in Iraq and has found, as expected, that the soil, groundwater, and drinking water is frequently contaminated with organic and heavy metal wastes. The damage is overwhelming and UNEP is estimating huge cleanup costs for an additional 20 areas, the assessment of other sites, implementation of environmental legislation, and the buying back of military scrap material. It has also become essential that Iraq build a hazardous waste treatment facility. There is, however, another environmental ramification of war that directly affects the US. Although defeated in the last two sessions of Congress, the Department of Defense (DoD) is still floating the Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative (RRPI), which seeks immunity for military installations from the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammals Protection Act, the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (ie Superfund). Moreover, the US Government has repeatedly called for the suspension of environmental laws that are perceived to be detrimental to the Iraq war effort. Although the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps are responsible for compliance under the environmental statutes, the Pentagon has sought a host of exemptions for all branches of the military. However, many opponents of the exemptions argue that suspension of the laws is unnecessary, and the General Accounting Office has reported previously that environmental regulations have not damaged military readiness. In 2003, Christie Whitman, then Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, echoed that fact in Congressional testimony. The DoD is responsible for the management of more than 25 million acres of state and federal land within the US, or about 3% of the total federal land inventory. The Natural Heritage Data Network has reported that military lands often support habitat for many endangered species, and that a disproportionate number of federally listed species can be found on DoD lands. The DoD has created “work-around” plans to decrease habitat encroachment, but military leaders continue to press for live fire training. Those opposing the RRPI warn that such exemptions threaten many critical habitats. To confuse matters further, and exemption requests notwithstanding, the military has in fact long recognized the issues and has developed plans to avoid ecological disasters on its landholdings. Opposition to the RRPI is based largely on how well the DoD has implemented its statutory and regulatory obligations, which are contained in a statute that predates many of the environmental laws. The 45-year-old, much-amended and reau-thorized “Sikes Act” is the basis for awareness of the ecology that military facilities must protect. This requires the Secretary of Defense to carry out a program for the conservation and rehabilitation of natural resources on military installations and to prepare, in collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and state fish and wildlife agencies, Integrated Natural Resources Management Plans (INRMPs) for installations and activities. An INRMP is an installation commander's plan for supporting the military mission while protecting and enhancing resources for multiple use, sustained yield, and biological integrity. The purpose of the INRMP is to ensure that conservation measures and military activities on the installations' land are integrated and consistent with federal stewardship requirements. In the past, INRMPs have been successful in identifying critical habitat and threatened species; opponents of the RRPI have thus argued that a blanket exemption for military installations is not necessary. Indeed, researchers at the Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands at Colorado State University (Fort Collins) and the Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology (Hemhofen, Germany) recently reported something rather counterintuitive: some threatened and endangered species, such as the yellow-bellied toad, blue-winged grasshopper, and several species of wild goats, may fare better in the huge military training areas in Germany than in nearby national parks and preserves. It is thought that military bases may therefore provide a safer refuge for such species than adjacent areas of residential and commercial development. Please excuse my skepticism, but I for one will applaud those toads and grasshoppers that can outrun an Abrams tank. Douglass F Rohrman Lord, Bissell & Brook LLP, Chicago

Assessing the impacts of military vehicle traffic on natural areas. Introduction to the special issue and review of the relevant military vehicle impact literature

The American Society of Agronomy A-2 Division, Military Land Use and Management, and the International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems cosponsored a symposium titled “Assessing the Impacts of Military Vehicle Traffic on Natural Areas”. The symposium was held in Denver, CO on 4 November 2003. The objectives of this symposium were to characterize the types of environmental impacts associated with off-road vehicle use at varying spatial scales, to characterize common study approaches used to quantify vehicle impacts, and to identify knowledge gaps that limit the use of study results in decision-making. A series of papers originating from the symposium characterize the range of impact studies frequently conducted on military installations and the application of study results to typical land management, decision-making processes. This paper summarizes the relationships between these studies, integrates the studies into a larger impact analysis framework, and identifies knowledge gaps that limit application of study results in decision-making processes.

Comparison of 2 Techniques for Monitoring Vegetation on Military Lands

The U.S. Army is responsible for preparing a well-trained combat force while maintaining the ecological diversity and integrity of the lands it manages. The ability to efficiently collect data that accurately capture plant community diversity and percent composition is imperative to proper monitoring and land management of military lands. To ensure that the dual goals of military training and land stewardship are met on an army-wide basis, the U.S. Army Land Condition-Trend Analysis (LCTA) Program was developed. The LCTA Program specifies the Army's standard methodology for the collection, analysis, and reporting of natural resource data used for land inventory and monitoring. However, the LCTA sampling technique was developed in Colorado and Texas and little information is available on whether these methods are suitable for vegetation inventory and monitoring in other grassland ecosystems. This study compares LCTA measures of species richness and composition with quadrat sampling in the transitional area between the tall- and mixed-grass prairies of Camp Gilbert C. Grafton (South Unit) in North Dakota. Species richness was 67% higher when sampling with quadrats than using the LCTA technique, suggesting that LCTA samples did not detect a third of the plants present. Compared with the quadrat technique, LCTA samples overestimated the community contribution of Bouteloua gracilis (H.B.K.) Lag. ex Steud. (blue grama) and underestimated proportions of forbs and sedges. Moreover, LCTA samples are labor intensive and time consuming to collect. Other sampling methods may be needed to detect shifts in species composition towards a less desirable plant community or decreases in biodiversity that may be due to land-use. Thus, it is important for Camp Gilbert C. Grafton (South Unit) to re-evaluate the current standard methodology for monitoring the impacts of military training. Since military installations are located in many different ecosystems, it may be necessary for other installations to likewise examine the usefulness of LCTA techniques in their ecosystems. DOI:10.2458/azu_jrm_v56i5_prosser

Effect of military training on indicators of soil quality at Fort Benning, Georgia

Abstract The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of soil disturbance on several key indicators of soil quality at Fort Benning, Georgia. Military activities at Fort Benning that result in soil disturbance include infantry, artillery, wheeled, and tracked vehicle training. Soil samples were collected along a disturbance gradient that included: (1) reference sites, (2) light military use, (3) moderate military use, (4) heavy military use, and (5) remediated sites. With the exception of surface soil bulk density, measured soil properties at reference and light use sites were similar. Relative to reference sites, greater surface soil bulk density, lower soil carbon concentrations, and less carbon and nitrogen in particulate organic matter (POM) were found at moderate use, heavy use, and remediated sites. Studies along a pine forest chronosequence indicated that carbon stocks in POM gradually increased with stand age. An analysis of soil C:N ratios, as well as soil carbon concentrations and stocks, indicated a recovery of soil quality at moderate military use and remediated sites relative to heavy military use sites. Measurements of soil carbon and nitrogen are ecological indicators that can be used by military land managers to identify changes in soil from training activities and to rank training areas on the basis of soil quality.

Impacts of Tracked Vehicles on Sediment from a Desert Soil

Off-road military vehicle traffic is a major consideration in the management of military lands. The objective of this study was to determine the impacts of military tracked M1A1 heavy combat tank vehicles on sediment loss from runoff, surface plant cover, and surface microtopography in a desert military training environment. A randomized block design was used which had 10 blocks with 4 plots (0.5 m2) in each block. Each block had randomly selected treatments that included an untreated control, 1 pass by a M1A1 tank under wet seasonal conditions, 3 passes by a M1A1 tank under wet seasonal conditions, 1 pass by a M1A1 tank under dry seasonal conditions, and 3 passes by a M1A1 tank under dry seasonal conditions. Data were analyzed using mean separation and stepwise regression techniques. Most sample periods showed that sediment losses from M1A1 tank treatments, single or triple passes under wet or dry seasonal conditions, did not differ statistically from natural sediment losses under nominal rainfall events. However, comparatively intense rainfall events often generated significantly (P < 0.05) greater sediment losses from the M1A1 tank triple pass treatments. Triple pass M1A1 tank impacts had detrimental effects that could last many years, particularly when disturbances were imposed under dry seasonal conditions. Seasonal drought for the area, occurring 2 out of 3 years during the study period, may have exacerbated the effects of triple pass M1A1 tank impacts. Analysis showed that grass cover, litter cover, and microtopographic variance were highly and negatively correlated (R = -0.62) with cumulative sediment loss. Depending on precipitation availability, a minimum of 3 years for most triple pass M1A1 tank impacts is suggested for suitable vegetation recovery and soil stability. It is recommended that site repetitious M1A1 tank training maneuvers should be conducted with particular attention to site recovery. Furthermore, the influence of climate, drought in particular, should be among the topics addressed by future military training land use models. DOI:10.2458/azu_jrm_v56i4_fuchs

Impacts of tracked vehicles on sediment from a desert soil

Off-road military vehicle traffic is a major consideration in the management of military lands. The objective of this study was to determine the impacts of military tracked M1A1 heavy combat tank vehicles on sediment loss from runoff, surface plant cover, and surface microtopography in a desert military training environment. A randomized block design was used which had 10 blocks with 4 plots (0.5 m2) in each block. Each block had randomly selected treatments that included an untreated control, 1 pass by a M1A1 tank under wet seasonal conditions, 3 passes by a M1A1 tank under wet seasonal conditions, 1 pass by a M1A1 tank under dry seasonal conditions, and 3 passes by a M1A1 tank under dry seasonal conditions. Data were analyzed using mean separation and stepwise regression techniques. Most sample periods showed that sediment losses from M1A1 tank treatments, single or triple passes under wet or dry seasonal conditions, did not differ statistically from natural sediment losses under nominal rainfall events. However, comparatively intense rainfall events often generated significantly (P 0.05) greater sediment losses from the M1A1 tank triple pass treatments. Triple pass M1A1 tank impacts had detrimental effects that could last many years, particularly when disturbances were imposed under dry seasonal conditions. Seasonal drought for the area, occurring 2 out of 3 years during the study period, may have exacerbated the effects of triple pass M1A1 tank impacts. Analysis showed that grass cover, litter cover, and microtopographic variance were highly and negatively correlated (R = -0.62) with cumulative sediment loss. Depending on precipitation availability, a minimum of 3 years for most triple pass M1A1 tank impacts is suggested for suitable vegetation recovery and soil stability. It is recommended that site repetitious M1A1 tank training maneuvers should be conducted with particular attention to site recovery. Furthermore, the influence of climate, drought in particular, should be among the topics addressed by future military training land use models.

Comparison of 2 techniques for monitoring vegetation on military lands

The U.S. Army is responsible for preparing a well-trained combat force while maintaining the ecological diversity and integrity of the lands it manages. The ability to efficiently collect data that accurately capture plant community diversity and percent composition is imperative to proper monitoring and land management of military lands. To ensure that the dual goals of military training and land stewardship are met on an army-wide basis, the U.S. Army Land Condition-Trend Analysis (LCTA) Program was developed. The LCTA Program specifies the Army's standard methodology for the collection, analysis, and reporting of natural resource data used for land inventory and monitoring. However, the LCTA sampling technique was developed in Colorado and Texas and little information is available on whether these methods are suitable for vegetation inventory and monitoring in other grassland ecosystems. This study compares LCTA measures of species richness and composition with quadrat sampling in the transitional area between the tall- and mixed-grass prairies of Camp Gilbert C. Grafton (South Unit) in North Dakota. Species richness was 67% higher when sampling with quadrats than using the LCTA technique, suggesting that LCTA samples did not detect a third of the plants present. Compared with the quadrat technique, LCTA samples overestimated the community contribution of Bouteloua gracilis (H.B.K.) Lag. ex Steud. (blue grama) and underestimated proportions of forbs and sedges. Moreover, LCTA samples are labor intensive and time consuming to collect. Other sampling methods may be needed to detect shifts in species composition towards a less desirable plant community or decreases in biodiversity that may be due to land-use. Thus, it is important for Camp Gilbert C. Grafton (South Unit) to re-evaluate the current standard methodology for monitoring the impacts of military training. Since military installations are located in many different ecosystems, it may be necessary for other installations to likewise examine the usefulness of LCTA techniques in their ecosystems.

An object-oriented framework for dynamic ecosystem modeling: application for integrated risk assessment

Ecological risk assessment requires the integration of a wide range of data on anthropogenic processes, ecological processes and on processes related to environmental fate and transport. It is a major challenge to assemble a simulation system that can successfully capture the dynamics of complex ecological systems and an even more serious challenge to be able to adapt such a simulation to shifting and expanding analytical requirements and contexts. The dynamic information architecture system (DIAS) is a flexible, extensible, object-based framework for developing and maintaining complex simulations. DIAS supports simulations in which the real-world entities that make up ecological systems are represented as software ‘entity objects’. The object-oriented integrated dynamic landscape analysis and modeling system (OO-IDLAMS) provides a good example of how DIAS has been used to build a suite of models for the purpose of assessing the ecological impacts of military land use and land management practices. OO-IDLAMS is a prototype conservation modeling suite that provides military environmental managers and decision-makers with a strategic, integrated and adaptive approach to natural resources planning and ecosystem management. The OO-IDLAMS prototype used Fort Riley, Kansas as a case study to demonstrate DIAS’ capabilities to offer flexibility, interprocess dynamics and cost-effective reuse of code for ecosystem modeling and simulation. DIAS can also readily lend itself to other applications in ecological risk assessment. It has great potential for the integration of ecological models (associated with biological uptake and effects) with environmental fate and transport models. A DIAS ecological risk assessment application could be used to predict the magnitude and extent of ecological risks and evaluate remedy effectiveness in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Khaki conservation: an examination of military environmentalist discourses in the British Army

The paper examines discourses of military environmentalism. It opens with an assessment of the significance of military environmentalist discourses and outlines reasons for their study. In three successive sections, the paper then looks in detail at the form and function of three of these discourses. The paper draws on a range of primary and secondary sources including Ministry of Defence and Army publicity information, policy documentation, parliamentary debates and data from the Otterburn Public Inquiry. It examines the construction of military training as environmentally compatible through a discourse of ‘crater-as-habitat’. It goes on to look the paternalism within discourses of military land management. It then examines a discourse of administrative rationalism in conservation, which is foundational in that it defines what environmental protection and conservation are about. The paper concludes with a comment on the wider significance of military environmental discourses.

Nongovernmental organization perspective. Environmental management of military munitions and lands

Federal Facilities Environmental JournalVolume 11, Issue 3 p. 141-146 Article Nongovernmental organization perspective. Environmental management of military munitions and lands Paul F. Walker, Paul F. Walker: , Ph.D., is on the Editorial Board of FFEJ and manages the Legacy Program of Global Green USA, the American affiliate of Green Cross International with President Mikhail Gorbachev. The Legacy Program is an international effort managed jointly with Green Cross Russia and Green Cross Switzerland. Walker was formerly a senior staffer with the U.S. House Armed Services Committee.Search for more papers by this author Paul F. Walker, Paul F. Walker: , Ph.D., is on the Editorial Board of FFEJ and manages the Legacy Program of Global Green USA, the American affiliate of Green Cross International with President Mikhail Gorbachev. The Legacy Program is an international effort managed jointly with Green Cross Russia and Green Cross Switzerland. Walker was formerly a senior staffer with the U.S. House Armed Services Committee.Search for more papers by this author First published: 10 January 2007 https://doi.org/10.1002/ffej.3330110314 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume11, Issue3Autumn (Fall) 2000Pages 141-146 RelatedInformation

An ecoregional context for natural resources management: A case study at nellis air force range, Nevada

AbstractThis article describes recent developments undertaken by the Air Force, working in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy, to implement ecosystem management at the three million acre Nellis Air Force Range, Nevada (NAFR). The principal focus of those efforts included holding a dialogue facilitated by the Keystone Center which examined long‐range natural resources management strategies for NAFR, the development and presentation of a biodiversity conservation course for military land managers, and the formation of an ecosystem assessment process to establish a scientific foundation for cooperative stewardship within the northeastern portion of the Mojave Desert Ecoregion.