Islands of biodiversity
The need for the Calvary to manage Yosemite in
the early 19th century finds its modern reflection in
the need for the DOD to manage the 30 million acres
under its purview. The impetus to sustainably man-
age much military land stems from a pragmatic need
to ensure viable training facilities. The military has
long espoused the need to ‘train as we fight,’ and as
technology has changed ‘how we fight,’ pressures on
training ranges increased and deterioration in land
quality was noticeable by the 1980s (Diersing et al.
1992). In response programs like ITAM —Integrated
Training Area Management —were developed and
implemented to assist land managers in evaluating
land condition and using this information to improve
management (CERL 1995). Managing military land-
holdings presents unique challenges as well as oppor-
tunities. This prompted Colorado State University to
develop a certificate program in Sustainable Military
Lands Management. According to the University
website the certificate “will help you understand the
importance of military lands management and the
cultural and ecological significance of sustaining these
lands” (Colorado State 2010).
This educational program recognizes sound land
management has a sustainability impact beyond mili-
tary training needs. Specifically, military lands are
unique places of high biodiversity and home to many
threatened and endangered species (Stein et al. 2008;
Warren et al. 2007). In fact, the density of imperiled
or endangered species is three times higher on DOD
lands compared to the National Park Service, the sec-
ond ranked agency for endangered species density
(Stein et al. 2008). Additionally, numerous species