[at-l] Possibly OT- Woodpeckers, All they can be!

[Slyatpct@aol.com (Slyatpct@aol.com)]

Army Develops Pilot Program to Protect Base, Woodpeckers

By WILLIAM L. HOLMES
.c The Associated Press 

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (April 8) - Environmentalists bent on protecting endangered 
species have a new - and formidable - ally: the U.S. Army.

As a federal agency, the Army has long been required to protect flora and 
fauna that are declared endangered. At Fort Bragg, a 167,000-acre post 
adjoining Fayetteville, work to protect and restore the red-cockaded 
woodpecker began at least a decade ago.

The effort only recently became a joint project of the military and The 
Nature Conservancy, an international environmental group. The collaboration 
is serving as a pilot program for the Army and a model for bases across the 
country.

And it serves the soldiers as well as the birds: By restricting development 
on the fringes of Fort Bragg, the Army can avoid fights with potential 
neighbors over the noise and disruption of military training.

North Carolina's Sandhills region is home to the second-largest red-cockaded 
woodpecker population in the world.

Army bases throughout the Southeast have been called on to protect the 
species, which makes its home in the dwindling longleaf pine ecosystem that 
once stretched unbroken from Virginia to Texas.

The Public Lands Initiative of the U.S. Army Environmental Center has 
committed $9.4 million to the program at Fort Bragg, and the North Carolina 
chapter of The Nature Conservancy has agreed to add at least $7 million.

The money will help buy land and secure conservation easements that will 
prevent building near the post, said Col. Stan H. Lillie, commander of the 
Army's environmental center.

The program will keep encroaching developers at bay, increase the amount of 
land available for training and help Bragg better manage the red-cockaded 
woodpecker populations on the post and nearby.

''This is the time. We've got to do something now,'' Lillie said. ''We've 
recognized for a long time it was going to take more than the resources we 
had available for us to accomplish what we needed to accomplish.''

The partnership was announced in January, as the state Department of 
Transportation, The Nature Conservancy and the Army agreed to share 
management of a 2,500-acre tract in Hoke County that borders Fort Bragg.

The land is prime woodpecker habitat, with up to five mating pairs and 25 
birds.

The state agency bought the land for $5.3 million to help make up for 
woodpecker land it may destroy as it builds highways. While the department 
will retain ownership, it has agreed to turn over care of the land to The 
Nature Conservancy and pay $600,000 into a management fund. The Nature 
Conservancy and the Army agreed to pay $150,000 each into the fund.

In exchange for its contribution, the Army has been given access to the land 
for small unit tactical training.

The program also increases the protected range of the red-cockaded 
woodpecker. About 10 years ago, the Army's obligation to help protect and 
restore the species brought training at the base to a near-standstill while 
officials hashed out how to keep their work from hurting the birds.

Since 1995, the Army Environmental Center has secured conservation easements 
on about 2,200 acres surrounding Fort Bragg to ease the environmental 
pressure, but has never had a partner until now.

''Folks outside may laugh and snicker, but (woodpecker protection) is on our 
mission list, and we take it seriously,'' said Col. Tad Davis, the base's 
garrison commander. ''This program is vital to Fort Bragg's future.''

The program may also help the Army across the country, Lillie said. He and 
other officials are looking for partners who will help them protect land 
around installations under pressures similar to those at Fort Bragg.

Most of the land on Army bases is in good condition because it receives light 
use, said Bill Millen, a senior policy adviser for The Nature Conservancy's 
national office in Arlington, Va. Even firing ranges and other intensely used 
areas are about 97 percent buffer land, he said.

''Some of the best biodiversity in America is on military lands,'' Millen 
said.

For example, Fort Hood in Texas has to fulfill its military mission with an 
eye on the golden cheek warbler and black-cap vireo, and installations in 
California have been drawn into the protection of the desert tortoise.

Residents who live near bases often complain about the noise and traffic that 
accompany exercises and often win concessions that limit the training, Lillie 
said.

Much of Fort Bragg still lies next to rural, undeveloped areas. The Army 
wants to protect those areas as subdivisions, horse farms, golf courses and 
other development move closer.

Katherine Skinner, executive director of The Nature Conservancy's state 
office, said the model created at Fort Bragg will work elsewhere as long as 
conservationists and the military understand each other's needs.

''We took a leap of faith that we could stand some light Army training,'' she 
said. ''I have no idea what is going to happen, but that really doesn't 
bother us at this juncture.''

Skinner said her group and the Army will continue to look for tracts around 
Fort Bragg that fit both their missions.

''How that will develop is anybody's guess,'' she said. ''Our goal is to make 
it all work.''


--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---