November 2015 - Parks & Recreation - 43

including live-fire training, mitigating noise conflicts, enabling continuation of night-operations training,
protecting against electromagnetic
interference and more. In addition,
the REPI program has produced
significant cost savings in multiple
ways and is widely regarded as a
success by the Department of Defense (DOD) and surrounding communities and landowners.
The idea of building resource-based
partnerships is part of a larger trend
to look at potential collaboration for
energy and infrastructure, says Steve
Bonner, a former natural resource
planner for the National Park Service (NPS) and now president of his
own company that facilitates such
partnerships, SONRI Corp. Bonner
points out that all military bases have
a mandated responsibility to preserve
natural resources on base, including
managing habitat for wildlife, ensuring water quality and dealing with invasive species, among other responsibilities. He notes the DOD must also
balance protection of environmental
quality and encroachment on wildlife
habitat on base, as well as off base.
Proof in Preservation
Robert Gregory, former executive director of the Land Legacy Foundation in Oklahoma and now president
of the Compatible Lands Foundation, says that, initially, local landowners often have a high degree of
skepticism about the idea of the military trying to preserve lands off base
to free up lands on base to complete
missions. " But once trust is developed and results are seen, " he says,
" it's a win-win for all. "
Gregory described some of the
projects his Compatible Lands Foundation is working on at five bases
across the country, including a proj

ect near Ft. Campbell in Christian
County, Kentucky. The rural agricultural landscape surrounding the base
contains some of the highest quality
soils in the state, he said, and local
landowners are passionate about protecting farming. By working together
with the base and a number of local
partners - including the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the
Department of Agriculture, which
provided a significant share of funding - the Army has been able to secure more than 8,000 acres of buffer
lands under conservation easement
under its version of the REPI program, the Army Compatibility Use
Buffer program (ACUB).
One of the more successful examples of how the Army has creatively achieved this delicate balance of
protecting threatened natural resources while preserving military
mission has taken place in the lands
surrounding Camp Bullis near San
Antonio, Texas. The area hosts base
operations and training support for
Joint Base San Antonio Mission
Partners, including firing ranges,
simulation exercises and maneuver
lands for training.
The oak/Ashe juniper woods of
Texas hill country are home to the
golden-cheeked warbler, a neo-tropical species that nests exclusively
in south Texas in very specialized
habitat, and then winters in Mexico and Central America. These
warblers - that nest nowhere else
in the world but Texas - are a federally endangered species, and thus
invoke all the protections such a
designation brings. Still, the species
continues to decline since its designation in 1991. Its habitat has been
degraded by suburban development
and the cutting of the juniper forests for roads, lakes and other activ-

ities, as well as the clearing of land
for agriculture.
Jim Cannizzo, the administrative
and civil law advisor who handles
the Retained Army Functions at Fort
Sam Houston and Camp Bullis, described how the Army, through its
ACUB program, tackled the protection of golden-cheeked warbler habitat around Camp Bullis. In a concentrated years-long effort, the Army
has been able to purchase and protect
thousands of acres of buffer lands
through conservation easements
around Camp Bullis. Partners included the City of San Antonio, which
transferred several thousand acres
of land already set aside for aquifer
protection. The Nature Conservancy
pitched in, as well as Bexar County
and private conservation organizations such as the Bandera Corridor
Conservation Bank, a land conservation mitigation bank.
Estimates made by the partnering
nonprofit conservation organizations
and the Army calculate that up to $50
million has been saved by not incurring other costs that would have been
necessary to protect the mission of
the base. Without the conservation
partnerships, any solution would
have led to greater environmental impact, according to Cannizzo. " New
roads would have been required to
get to suitable training areas, a $2
million bridge would have needed
to have been built, and an additional
5 miles of driving and lost training
time would have been required to
get to training areas, " Cannizzo said.
" This was good for the Army, good
for the environment and good for the
local communities. It truly has been a
win-win. "
Richard J. Dolesh is NRPA's Vice President of
Conservation and Parks (rdolesh@nrpa.org).

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November 2015 - Parks & Recreation

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