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Environment

Armed forces are responsible for managing considerable ranges of land, and as a result, they are among the largest environmental managers in the world. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) managed (in 2004) approximately 30 million acres (48,000 square miles) that contain an astonishing variety of natural and cultural resources in a wide and diverse range of environments, including prairies, deserts, mountains, jungles, arctic tundra, reefs, inland waters, and oceans, that contained critical animal habitat, endangered flora and fauna species, and national and international archaeological and architectural treasures. To successfully integrate land stewardship responsibilities with training demands, and during operational deployments, armed forces employ a variety of methodologies. This entry discusses the efforts of the DOD to manage and protect natural and cultural resources.

Proper environmental management is integral to maintaining the integrity of training areas, particularly given the heavy weights and large size of modern tactical vehicles and extended operational ranges of many weapon systems. If the environmental impacts of training activities are not properly anticipated and deleterious effects are not properly mitigated, vegetation will be destroyed, the desired training environment will not be retained, and environmental damage such as soil erosion and landslides can render a training area impassable. Environmental impacts such as wildfires resulting from the detonation of military ordnance can prevent training from being conducted; desired tactical conditions such as woodlands, jungle canopies, cliffs to be traversed, and streams and rivers cannot be maintained, and training can be adversely affected.

Planning

Within the United States, environmental planning is guided by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which requires that the effects of any proposed action(s) on the natural and human environment are taken into account before such an activity is permitted to proceed. The act’s analysis and documentation might be as simple as a single-page memorandum determining that no effect is anticipated, to a singlevolume environmental assessment that serves as a midlevel analytical document, to multiple-volume environmental impact statements that require years to prepare.

Management Measures

Water

Within the United States, the defining legislation for water conservation and protection are the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Compliance includes actions typical of any other community in the United States, particularly to safeguard potable water sources and inland water courses. Among the biggest challenges faced by DOD have been fuel spills (particularly during field training by mechanized units) and fuel storage (particularly large-capacity underground tanks employed because of security considerations). In recent years, the DOD has taken additional measures to safeguard water resources.

Air

The Clean Air Act is the overriding legislation to protect air quality within the United States. Various types of military training and operational activities have the potential to adversely affect air quality, particularly smoke generation to obscure tactical movements, employment of a range of military munitions, and operation of aircraft and vehicles. As with water resources, sustainment of air quality has proven to be challenging for DOD, and recent initiatives have sought to improve practices to reduce or eliminate air emissions.

Natural Resources

Management of natural resources including flora and fauna is a part of the military’s stewardship. In the United States, this is predominantly, but certainly not exclusively, done through compliance with the Endangered Species Act. Although it might appear that military training is incompatible with wildlife and habitat development and sustainment, the DOD is among the most active and successful government agencies in the protection and management of natural resources. For example, at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, the 16,000-acre training reservation is used intensively during the 3 summer months for the performance of Cadet Annual Field Training, but for the remaining 9 months of the year, it is essentially operated as a wildlife refuge. In the southeastern United States, DOD installations have been preeminently successful in supporting efforts to preserve and expand the population and habitat of the red-cockaded woodpecker, one of the first species to be formally listed as endangered, in 1970, and which is now no longer seriously threatened. This is only one of hundreds of similar success stories.

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