thedrifter
03-11-07, 01:53 PM
Posted on: Sunday, 11 March 2007, 06:00 CDT
Preserving Training Grounds
By Knott, Joseph
THE Mk. 83 bomb weighs 1,000 pounds. When it hits the ground it excavates a crater 20 feet wide and rattles windows miles away.
It's the kind of weapon Soldiers might call on to soften up an enemy during a real battle. So the Navy likes to bring Mk. 83s when Fort Sill, Okla., hosts joint-service, close-air-support training. These live-fire exercises can involve artillery and infantry, Air Force and Navy fliers and, occasionally, Marines. They fire multiple- launch rocket systems and cannon, adding to the realism.
The impact areas and maneuver ranges on Fort Sill have few neighbors to annoy or endanger, but to the south, the state's fourth largest city, Lawton, is growing. Until recently, training managers on the installation looked to the future with concern.
"A lot of our firing points are along the perimeter of the training area, so that noise would transfer into the surrounding community," said Randall Butler, public works director at Fort Sill.
So Fort Sill wants to put approximately 20,000 acres between its field artillery training areas and the growing communities of Lawton and Cache. To make it possible, the post became one of 16 installations turning to the Army Compatible Use Buffer program.
ACUB exists to help prevent subdivisions, schools and other development - that could be endangered by military training or testing - from springing up across from active ranges. Installations work with government and private organizations to find owners willing to sell their land or, more often, easements - giving up the right to do some things with their property.
With easements, "the landowners maintain the land, grow crops on it, run livestock, whatever they want to do, with the exception of developing a subdivision of houses in the buffer zone," said Craig Phillips, chief of the Conservation and Restoration Branch at Fort Riley, Kan.
It's a new way to do business. The Army provides some of the money and helps craft the agreement. Though buffers come in many forms, there are two unbreakable rules: The landowner must be willing to sell, and the Army cannot own the property or easement. It will belong, instead, to a partner - a state or local agency, or a nonprofit organization. Nationwide partners include The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Fort Sill plans to put approximately 20,000 acres between its field artillery training areas - where this Soldier is about to fire his howitzer - and the communities of Lawton and Cache.
The owner of the Ryder Ranch, on Fort Sill's southern perimeter, signed the installation's first Army Compatible Use Buffer agreement.
"The Army is not wanting to purchase more land to train on," said Jeff Keating, ACUB manager for Fort Riley. "It simply wants to maximize the use of the land we already own and minimize impact to surrounding properties."
Installations use buffers as part of an overall plan to sustain realistic training for generations of Soldiers. So far, these buffers cover almost 55,000 acres, protecting 10 Army installations. Expect to see at least six more forts with ACUB plans within the year, Army officials said.
A buffer usually protects more than Soldier training and weapon testing. Around Fort Riley, like many other installations, the issue is wild-life habitat. New communities use up open space, and neighboring installations become refuges for threatened or endangered species, more than 180 at last count.
As part of the Army's transformation, Fort Riley will grow by 20,000 Soldiers. This expansion will force other residents of Kansas' disappearing tallgrass prairie to compete with population growth outside the fort. If the regal fritillary butterfly and other species move onto the endangered species list, Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division and the three brigade combat teams could face summertime live-fire restrictions. And while a full Stryker brigade combat team on maneuvers needs almost 70,000 acres on an installation, cross-country vehicle traffic could be barred from potential breeding areas.
The Army has endured this kind of restriction for more than 20 years. The ACUB office at the Pentagon knows of eight-day convoy missions cut into segments lasting 14 days because of noise and dust complaints by community leaders, and digital firing ranges have been closed because half-million-dollar homes were built just on the other side of the fence line.
Fort Riley and Fort Sill didn't wait for restrictions. Instead, the installations put together a team of private and public organizations to create habitat outside the installation. Off-post habitat relieves the Army from primary caregiver duty. Other partners are willing to take on that mantle, and ACLJB makes it possible.
For Fort Riley, those partners include the Kansas Land Trust, a conservation organization, and NRCS. This marks the first time NRCS will put money into an Army buffer.
Sustaining ranches is another issue affecting Fort Riley. It also drives the partnership around Fort Sill. Oklahoma rancher A.J. Ryder became the first owner to sign on to the Fort Sill ACUB in July. He sold a conservation easement for his 300-acre spread to Fort Sill's ACUB partner, Land Legacy of Tulsa, Okla, The Army, NRCS, and county and state governments helped Land Legacy make the purchase.
Ryder said he wanted to support the nation's war efforts while protecting his land from private developers.
Waimea Falls on the Hawaiian island of Oahu is preserved and protected by the ACUB covering the Army's Kahuku Training Area.
By helping preserve the Kahuku Training Area, the ACUB ensures both necessary training sites for service members such as this Marine, while also protecting terrain and wildlife.
"They don't know what's going to happen in the future of the military - whether the artillery is going to be any larger or what - and they just want a buffer zone around it, which is good for me," he said.
The realistic conditions on live-fire ranges remain the most effective way of transferring the lessons of the battlefield to the next generation of Soldiers.
"As quickly as we come up with new tactics, the enemy is studying those tactics so they can counterattack," said SSG John Lee, an observer-controller on Fort Sill who helps train reserve-component Soldiers for deployment.
Soldiers need to practice with live ammunition to closely simulate what they will experience in combat. Lee said.
"The most realistic training you can get is what you need. Over in Iraq and Afghanistan, Soldiers will not have observer- controllers watching over their shoulders. What they do in various situations is going to be their call," he said.
"The Army is not wanting to purchase more land to train on. It simply wants to maximize the use of the land we already own and minimize the impact to surrounding properties."
LTC Knott is the program manager for the Army Compatible Use Buffer Program.
Ellie
Preserving Training Grounds
By Knott, Joseph
THE Mk. 83 bomb weighs 1,000 pounds. When it hits the ground it excavates a crater 20 feet wide and rattles windows miles away.
It's the kind of weapon Soldiers might call on to soften up an enemy during a real battle. So the Navy likes to bring Mk. 83s when Fort Sill, Okla., hosts joint-service, close-air-support training. These live-fire exercises can involve artillery and infantry, Air Force and Navy fliers and, occasionally, Marines. They fire multiple- launch rocket systems and cannon, adding to the realism.
The impact areas and maneuver ranges on Fort Sill have few neighbors to annoy or endanger, but to the south, the state's fourth largest city, Lawton, is growing. Until recently, training managers on the installation looked to the future with concern.
"A lot of our firing points are along the perimeter of the training area, so that noise would transfer into the surrounding community," said Randall Butler, public works director at Fort Sill.
So Fort Sill wants to put approximately 20,000 acres between its field artillery training areas and the growing communities of Lawton and Cache. To make it possible, the post became one of 16 installations turning to the Army Compatible Use Buffer program.
ACUB exists to help prevent subdivisions, schools and other development - that could be endangered by military training or testing - from springing up across from active ranges. Installations work with government and private organizations to find owners willing to sell their land or, more often, easements - giving up the right to do some things with their property.
With easements, "the landowners maintain the land, grow crops on it, run livestock, whatever they want to do, with the exception of developing a subdivision of houses in the buffer zone," said Craig Phillips, chief of the Conservation and Restoration Branch at Fort Riley, Kan.
It's a new way to do business. The Army provides some of the money and helps craft the agreement. Though buffers come in many forms, there are two unbreakable rules: The landowner must be willing to sell, and the Army cannot own the property or easement. It will belong, instead, to a partner - a state or local agency, or a nonprofit organization. Nationwide partners include The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Fort Sill plans to put approximately 20,000 acres between its field artillery training areas - where this Soldier is about to fire his howitzer - and the communities of Lawton and Cache.
The owner of the Ryder Ranch, on Fort Sill's southern perimeter, signed the installation's first Army Compatible Use Buffer agreement.
"The Army is not wanting to purchase more land to train on," said Jeff Keating, ACUB manager for Fort Riley. "It simply wants to maximize the use of the land we already own and minimize impact to surrounding properties."
Installations use buffers as part of an overall plan to sustain realistic training for generations of Soldiers. So far, these buffers cover almost 55,000 acres, protecting 10 Army installations. Expect to see at least six more forts with ACUB plans within the year, Army officials said.
A buffer usually protects more than Soldier training and weapon testing. Around Fort Riley, like many other installations, the issue is wild-life habitat. New communities use up open space, and neighboring installations become refuges for threatened or endangered species, more than 180 at last count.
As part of the Army's transformation, Fort Riley will grow by 20,000 Soldiers. This expansion will force other residents of Kansas' disappearing tallgrass prairie to compete with population growth outside the fort. If the regal fritillary butterfly and other species move onto the endangered species list, Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division and the three brigade combat teams could face summertime live-fire restrictions. And while a full Stryker brigade combat team on maneuvers needs almost 70,000 acres on an installation, cross-country vehicle traffic could be barred from potential breeding areas.
The Army has endured this kind of restriction for more than 20 years. The ACUB office at the Pentagon knows of eight-day convoy missions cut into segments lasting 14 days because of noise and dust complaints by community leaders, and digital firing ranges have been closed because half-million-dollar homes were built just on the other side of the fence line.
Fort Riley and Fort Sill didn't wait for restrictions. Instead, the installations put together a team of private and public organizations to create habitat outside the installation. Off-post habitat relieves the Army from primary caregiver duty. Other partners are willing to take on that mantle, and ACLJB makes it possible.
For Fort Riley, those partners include the Kansas Land Trust, a conservation organization, and NRCS. This marks the first time NRCS will put money into an Army buffer.
Sustaining ranches is another issue affecting Fort Riley. It also drives the partnership around Fort Sill. Oklahoma rancher A.J. Ryder became the first owner to sign on to the Fort Sill ACUB in July. He sold a conservation easement for his 300-acre spread to Fort Sill's ACUB partner, Land Legacy of Tulsa, Okla, The Army, NRCS, and county and state governments helped Land Legacy make the purchase.
Ryder said he wanted to support the nation's war efforts while protecting his land from private developers.
Waimea Falls on the Hawaiian island of Oahu is preserved and protected by the ACUB covering the Army's Kahuku Training Area.
By helping preserve the Kahuku Training Area, the ACUB ensures both necessary training sites for service members such as this Marine, while also protecting terrain and wildlife.
"They don't know what's going to happen in the future of the military - whether the artillery is going to be any larger or what - and they just want a buffer zone around it, which is good for me," he said.
The realistic conditions on live-fire ranges remain the most effective way of transferring the lessons of the battlefield to the next generation of Soldiers.
"As quickly as we come up with new tactics, the enemy is studying those tactics so they can counterattack," said SSG John Lee, an observer-controller on Fort Sill who helps train reserve-component Soldiers for deployment.
Soldiers need to practice with live ammunition to closely simulate what they will experience in combat. Lee said.
"The most realistic training you can get is what you need. Over in Iraq and Afghanistan, Soldiers will not have observer- controllers watching over their shoulders. What they do in various situations is going to be their call," he said.
"The Army is not wanting to purchase more land to train on. It simply wants to maximize the use of the land we already own and minimize the impact to surrounding properties."
LTC Knott is the program manager for the Army Compatible Use Buffer Program.
Ellie