In 2004, the FWS, Fisheries and Habitat Conservation program created the Military Conservation Partner Award to recognize military installations that have accomplished outstanding work in cooperation with the Service to promote conservation on military lands during the previous year. For example, in 2018, the award was given to Camp Blanding, FL. The FWS, the military and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission signed a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) in 2017 to boost the base’s conservation efforts and keep nearly two dozen at-risk fish and wildlife species off the Endangered Species list. Under the CCAA, landowners voluntarily commit to conservation actions to help stabilize or restore a plant or animal species. These activities collectively help to preclude the need for a threatened or endangered listing. In return, the military gets some regulatory certainty and a promise that, even if a plant or animal is added to the threatened or endangered list, training may continue37.
The award was created to highlight the conservation benefits of partnerships between the military and the FWS, and to identify important criteria for selecting installations for the award. The following criteria categories, or some variation thereof relevant for a given partnership, can be helpful to installations when building conservation partnerships large and small38.
Communication and cooperation with partners (area of highest emphasis)
- Describe the types of contact the installation maintains with the FWS, state agency and other stakeholders.
- What natural resource management teams has the installation developed?
- What Memoranda of Understanding or cooperative agreements has the installation implemented?
- List unique outreach activities and public involvement
- Have team members received any other awards for their partnerships?
Issues resolution, success and effectiveness
- Are issues resolved with a regional ecosystem management perspective?
- Give examples of successful issue resolution and coordination with all parties
- How has the installation’s natural resource program benefited the resource?
- Is project success and effectiveness ongoing?
- Creative projects or solutions to issues
- Do projects have a regional- or landscape-level impact? Projects listed may
- be on or off the installation
- What unique natural resource projects have been implemented?
- Are projects proactive?
37 https://www.fws.gov/southeast/tags/military-conservation-partner-award/
38 https://www.fws.gov/habitatconservation/Award_Form.pdf
Program diversity
- Describe the diversity of the natural resource program; include examples of recreational fisheries, hunting, endangered species, habitat restoration, migratory bird, invasive species, watershed management, wetland restoration, and other projects
- Who conducts the work? Installation staff, contractors, cooperators/nonfederal entities?
Service policy and regulation compliance
- Is the INRMP up to date with Service concurrence within the past five years?
- Were INRMPs and other documents submitted with enough time for FWS review?
- Were natural resources compliance projects resolved in a timely fashion?
- Were section 7 consultations adequately and timely submitted?
- Was NEPA coordination and documentation completed on schedule?
The Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program has developed a series of primers designed to facilitate a better understanding among partnership stakeholders, including military installation leadership, state, regional and local government officials, land trusts, and communities. These primers provide tools and suggestions for establishing and maintaining effective relationships and partnerships to address the challenges of encroachment, but are relevant to other partnerships as well (more on REPI below). The following primers are available for download from the REPI website39:
- Collaborative Land Use Planning: A Guide for Military Installations and Local
Governments - Commander’s Guide to Community Involvement
- Commander’s Guide to Renewable Energy
- Commander’s Guide to Understanding and Supporting Working Forests
- The Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program Buffer Partnerships
- Outreach for Mission Sustainability: Working to Balance Military and Civilian Community Needs
- Working to Preserve Farm, Forest and Ranch Lands: A Guide for Military
- Installations
- Working with Conservation Districts: A Guide for Military Installations
- Working with Land Trusts: A Guide for Military Installations and Land Trusts
- Working with Local Governments: A Practical Guide for Installations
- Working with Regional Councils: A Guide for Installations
- Working with State Legislators: A Guide for Military Installations and State Legislators
Guidance on the essential elements and lessons learned by participants in the Sonoran Desert Ecosystem Initiative are particularly relevant to this discussion (Chambers and Hall 2005). The project’s relatively long timeframe (1998 to 2005), large geographic scope (Sonoran Desert Ecoregion’s 55 million acres), and diverse partnerships involving many federal and state agencies, universities, and nonprofit conservation organizations make it particularly rich in lessons that can be applied to future work. Lessons learned are organized into three main categories: (1) partnerships, (2) results, and (3) public involvement. Within each category, the authors describe lessons first in general terms and then provide examples from the Initiative.
39 https://www.repi.mil/Resources/Primers.aspx
Next Page: Types of partnerships
Author
David S. Jones, RA IV, Ecologist/Project Manager
Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands
Warner College of Natural Resources
Colorado State University