[CPEO-MEF] DOD Announces New INRMP Guidance

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

United States Department of Defense 
News Release
On the web:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct2002/b10102002_bt518-02.html 
Media contact: media@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 697-5131 
Public contact: public@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 428-0711 


No. 518-02 
IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
October 10, 2002 

 NEW GUIDANCE FOR NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT RELEASED

The Department of Defense has released new guidance on managing natural
resources on the more than 25 million acres of land on 425 major
military installations. The guidance incorporates lessons learned from
the past four years of preparing and implementing hundreds of Integrated
Natural Resource Management Plans (INRMP). The INRMP is the document
used by DoD to protect natural resources on its installations. 

The guidance emphasizes the necessity for early coordination with all
INRMP stakeholders and helps to ensure that issues are identified and
resolved before INRMPs are completed. Performance metrics were also
added to better monitor plan implementation. 

Since 1960, the Sikes Act has required military installations to provide
for the conservation and rehabilitation of natural resources on its
lands. In 1997, an amendment to the Act required the military to prepare
and implement INRMPs for each military installation with significant
natural resources, and to do so in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and the appropriate state agencies. The new
INRMPs--with their comprehensive and holistic management approach--meet
the conservation requirements of the Sikes Act and focus on the
preservation and maintenance of healthy and fully functional ecosystems. 

Military installations are used to conduct essential military testing
and training to provide for the nation's defense. Security and safety
considerations require that large tracts of land on and around DoD
ranges be used as buffer zones. Over the years, these zones have
sheltered many rare plant and animal species. Today, DoD manages over
300 federally listed threatened or endangered species on its lands. 

The guidance for INRMP may be found at 
https://www.denix.osd.mil/denix/Public/ES-Programs/Conservation/Legacy/Sikes/sikes.html. 

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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