inventorying and monitoring of vegetation and soils,
rehabilitation and repair of damaged lands, and GIS
mapping and modeling (Balbach et al. 2008). Addi-
tionally, through ITAM and other educational aware-
ness programs, the Army has formulated broad and
encompassing educational and operational directives
and programs to provide soldiers and unit leaders –
those who actually conduct military operations – with
an understanding of environmental stewardship prin-
ciples and applications, and their relationship to mili-
tary readiness.
Ecosystem Management and Conserving
Biodiversity
Significant proportions of military lands in the
United States remain minimally undisturbed from
their pre-military occupation state, and often repre-
sent the most undisturbed ecosystems in a region,
particularly in areas where residential, commercial
and industrial development have largely altered the
landscape. This reality is somewhat counter-intuitive
to the general public, who generally envision these
lands as “wastelands of destruction,” impacted by
maneuvers, unexploded ordnance, munitions waste
and other fragments of military activities. Indeed,
some portions of these military lands, particularly
the live-fire impact areas for ranges, are heavily im-
pacted and contain dangerous and toxic constituents
from munitions. However, these designated “sacrifice
areas” represent only a small fragment of the overall
military land inventory.
Consequently, many military lands have become,
through somewhat unintended consequences, sanc-
tuaries for hundreds of threatened and endangered