Potential Military Effects on Selected Plant Communities in the Southeastern United States
Abstract
Military training and testing mission requirements make up the highest priority land uses on Department of Defense (DoD) lands. The U.S. Armed Forces require realistic, relatively natural, and expansive areas for adequate training. Training activities can lead to degradation of sensitive natural resources, but they also produce benefits. An ecosystem-based approach to managing threatened, endangered, and sensitive species (TES) and other natural resources provides DoD with an efficient, effective, and flexible framework for evaluating impacts, assessing natural resources, and generating management solutions to potential conflicts between training and TES conservation. Any increase in understanding about the habitat requirements of listed TES species will assist training and natural resource personnel in complying with the Endangered Species Act while avoiding restrictions on the military mission. This report is to be used by DoD natural resource policymakers, installation land managers, and the natural resource research community, in conjunction with associated documents produced by this SERDP work unit to develop ecosystem-based approaches to describe natural communities and TES habitat in relation to military activities, evaluate military-related effects on those communities, develop community-based strategies for supporting both military land use and TES habitat management, and develop management solutions for military impacts to natural communities when management for TES habitat is a priority for a particular location.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA329276
Entities
People
- Ann-marie Trame
- Mary Harper
Organizations
- Construction Engineering Research Laboratory