The Department of Defense Natural Resources Program

The Department of Defense’s (DOD) ability to conduct realistic live-fire training, weapons system testing, and essential operations is vital to preparing a more lethal and resilient combat force. To meet these training needs, warfighters rely on unencumbered access to open lands and ranges that contain a variety of environments and replicate the operational environment in which they may fight. DOD manages and maintains nearly 27 million acres of land, water, and airspace across the United States and its territories that have the principal purpose to support mission-related activities and further the national defense strategy. Realistic environments are essential to field testing new technologies and for the military to train, which requires access to deserts, grasslands, rainforests, tundra permafrost, coastlines, and other ecosystems. Training and testing in varied ecosystems prepare our warfighters for any of the challenges they may face while conducting global operations. DOD’s Natural Resources (NR) Program ensures no net loss in the ability of these military installation lands and waters to sustain a combat-ready and lethal military force.

DOD’s NR Program provides guidance and tools for managing and protecting irreplaceable testing and training ranges, operating areas, and the mission critical natural resources that sustain our force and national defense. Aligned under the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the NR Program provides DOD Components with the policy, guidance, oversight, and resources needed to implement their natural resources programs to support the military mission in compliance with all federal environmental laws and requirements, such as the Sikes Act, Executive Orders, and Presidential memoranda.

Managing for Mission Readiness

The goal of DOD’s NR Program is to maintain mission readiness and guarantee continued access to all DOD lands, waters, and airspace to perform mission activities by safeguarding natural ecosystems critical to the Department and ensuring their long-term viability. The NR program ensures mission resilient lands by addressing threats to mission operations and military infrastructure from encroachment, wildland fire, invasive species, and weather-related hazards such as flood and drought. To achieve these goals, installation natural resource managers focus on ecosystem management that provides high quality landscapes for warfighters to train and test new technologies and systems, work to reduce legal and environmental encumbrances that may restrict the military mission and mitigate threats to installations from natural hazards. Ecosystem management sustains and enhances mission-essential lands and helps the Department avoid or minimize impacts to its mission, such as damages to mission-critical infrastructure and training delays from wildfires, inability of lands to support training due to spread of invasive species, and encroachment from development. Managing natural resources allows troops to train in the conditions they will fight by providing natural environments to test and hone their skills, resulting in a more combat ready force. These natural environments serve the military mission, while preserving natural spaces for future DOD mission needs and supporting wildlife.

Planning and Executing for Success – Integrated Natural Resources Management Plans

Section 670a(b)(1)(I) of the Sikes Act requires the Secretary of Defense to carry out Natural Resources programs to ensure no net loss in military installation capabilities and to maintain or improve the resilience of military installations through the implementation of Integrated Natural Resources Management Plans (INRMPs). INRMPs serve as the blueprint for sustaining mission readiness through the management of installation lands, waters, and airspace. For installations with “significant natural resources,” INRMPs outline specific strategies and approaches that support each installation’s mission through natural resources management, stewardship, and conservation. INRMPs are living documents that provide direction for daily natural resources management activities and require a comprehensive approach to ensure mission access across the landscape or ecosystem. INRMPs are coordinated and developed in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and State Fish and Wildlife agencies.

Of the Department’s 550 installations, 364 of them require INRMPs, including:

Mission Partnerships

To further the national defense mission, DOD works with Federal, state, and local partners to protect strategic defense priorities, promote flexibility and certainty for DOD to execute its mission, and support partner missions. An example of this is the Recovery and Sustainment Partnership Initiative, established in 2018 and affirmed in 2024, which builds on years of collaboration between DoD and the Department of the Interior (DOI). The RASP focuses on reducing and alleviating Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulatory constraints on DOD lands while simultaneously contributing to species recovery. Through the RASP, DOD and DOI develop solutions that support military readiness by exploring innovative ESA approaches that provide greater flexibility for military installations to conduct their missions, streamline regulatory processes, and ensure resources are used efficiently and effectively to produce outcomes that will support DOD’s mission, landscapes, and decision space in the future.