U.S. Army Installation Tools to Identify and Limit Encroachment.

The U.S. Army maintains approximately 14 million hectares of land to house and train troops, test weapons, and conduct realistic readiness exercises.  The continued availability of these lands, and related sea and airspace resources, is critical for maintenance of readiness and power projection capability.  The rapid pace of land-use changes, such as urbanization, occurring all across the U.S. threatens this availability. Complicating the situation further is the fact that while military requirements for sustainable land-use are increasing for many installations, the overall availability of training space has decreased as many units have returned from overseas and dozens of installations in the U.S. have been closed or realigned.  This loss of critical training and testing land, sea, and airspace resources could permanently hinder the ability to conduct some exercises under realistic conditions.  As such the Army requires the capability to effectively minimize encroachment on installation operations.  Installation challenges are recognized by the Senior Readiness Oversight Council and are documented in “320” (installation urban encroachment) and “366” (range encroachment) Congressional reports.  This presentation examines (1) how installations and their communities can better predict and guide regional development that sustains the installation, (2) how Army can work with local municipalities to sustain needed ecosystems by maintaining ecological processes, species viability, and ecosystem dynamics; and (3) how the public and the military can plan better, more efficiently, and more collaboratively in the future.