After developing the INRMP, the DoD Components and installations implement the INRMPs through the following process27:
1. Actively requesting and using funds for natural resources management projects, activities and other requirements in support of goals, and objectives identified in the INRMP.
2. Ensuring enough professionally trained natural resource management personnel are available to perform the tasks required by the INRMP.
3. Inviting annual feedback from the appropriate FWS and State fish and wildlife agency offices on the effectiveness of the INRMP (see INRMP Review, Revisions and Updates section in this chapter).
4. Documenting specific INRMP action accomplishments undertaken each year.
5. Evaluating the effectiveness of past and current management activities and adapting those activities [or associated goals and objectives] as needed.
The Sikes Act requires that professionally trained natural resource managers be employed at all installations requiring an INRMP. The Sikes Act further stipulates that if qualified individuals cannot be found within the military service to implement the INRMP, then priority should be given to an appropriate federal or state wildlife management agency to execute it. However, this policy has not been formally adopted by all the military services. Even where it has, such as in the Air Force, it is sometimes not enforced. The result is that some natural resources positions are filled with individuals lacking formal natural resources backgrounds or training.
Typically, individuals with civil engineering backgrounds are selected for these positions or, in some cases, individuals with no formal professional natural resources training whatsoever (Ripley 2008).
Installation staff execute or oversee implementation of the INRMP. DoD (federal) and state military department/NGB staff have key roles with respect to representing their agency/installation and authorizing expenditures. Interagency staffing is sometimes provided using the Intergovernmental Personnel Act. Ongoing or periodic communication and coordination with federal and state agencies is expected, especially for sensitive resources. It is also common that non-federal entities, i.e., cooperators (partners through cooperative agreements) and contractors (partners through contracts), provide on-site support to INRMP activities. See Chapter 6, (Partnerships) for a discussion of using universities to support installation conservation, and Chapter 7 (on Funding) for a discussion of contracts vs. cooperative agreements.
27 DoD Manual 4715.03, Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan (INRMP) Implementation Manual, November 2013, Incorporating Change 2 August 2018.
Next Page: Knowledge of the installation and resource issues (adapted from CEMML 2006)
Author
David S. Jones, RA IV, Ecologist/Project Manager
Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands
Warner College of Natural Resources
Colorado State University