The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) manages approximately 28 million acres of land, air, and water resources across hundreds of installations; the Army Corps of Engineers manages an additional 12 million acres of land and water resources. These lands represent a critical network of habitats for birds, offering migratory stopover sites for resting and feeding, as well as suitable sites for nesting and rearing their young. The many installations that provide these important habitats form DoD’s Steppingstones of Migration. DoD Partners in Flight (PIF) is committed to ensuring that these areas, along with the species that depend on them, are protected and sustained for future generations.
A full-time National Technical Representative and approximately 25 natural resources managers from military installations and commands around the country comprise DoD PIF. This network represents each Military Service, as well as the civil works branch of the Army Corps of Engineers. To provide consistency with the national PIF coalition and to facilitate the flow of information among natural resources professionals, the DoD PIF program maintains a working group structure similar to that of the national PIF initiative. This includes regional working groups (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, and West) and topic-specific groups, including Research and Monitoring, Education and Outreach, International, Species of Concern, Bird/Animal Aircraft Strike Hazard (BASH), and Invasive Species. DoD PIF Representatives stay involved with and participate in meetings of their respective PIF regional or topic-specific working group, where applicable. For instance, the DoD PIF Research and Monitoring Working Group Representatives stay current with national and regional advances in monitoring and help formulate appropriate monitoring suggestions for DoD biologists that will maximize the benefit to monitoring actions undertaken on DoD lands.