The Convergence of National Security and Working Forests

How might working forests contribute to national security?  Providing "buffers" around military installations is one important opportunity that simultaneously supports the military’s training needs and that might also provide a much-needed revenue source to private forest landowners.
 

A Changing Landscape
When the military’s large training facilities were created decades ago, they were typically placed in rural areas with low population density, so that training operations would minimize the impact to local communities of the noise, fire, smoke, and other by-products of maneuvers.  Over time, however, urban sprawl has increasingly brought people closer to bases.  In some areas, housing developments extend literally to the edge of the fence.  At the same time, new technology and weaponry is requiring even more space for the military’s training activities.  This clash of needs has stimulated the Department of Defense to seek cost-effective ways to expand the area around their bases where training activities may safely be executed.

Private Forest Owners and the Military -- Cooperating for National Security
Given the prohibitively high cost of land acquisition, conservation easements and similar tools are becoming increasingly important to military planners.  Because of the still rural nature of land around many bases, using easements to prevent development in these "buffers" is cost-effective and also provides income to the land owners.  For many bases, particularly those in the South, this means working with corporate or family forest owners.  The Endowment is helping bring together both the Department of Defense and forest land owners to explore mutual benefits. 

The Endowment’s Partnership for Southern Forestland Conservation (ww.pfsfc.org),  a group of more than 30 landowners, agencies, and non-profits, is now working with the Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability (www.serppas.org), a group of federal and state agencies, including the military services, on this issue.  A Working Forest Task Force was created to study opportunities. This draft strategy is being reviewed and was presented to the SERPPAS leadership on November 9.

Watch this blog site for updates on the strategy and the Endowment’s plans to keep working forests an important part of the military’s base buffering strategy.

Submitted by:  Peter Stangel, Senior Vice President, the Endowment
Approved by:  Carlton Owen, President, the Endowment