USDA, NRCS Partners with U.S. Army in New Jersey

COOPERATIVE CONSERVATION CASE STUDY

Military Readiness through Natural Resource Conservation

Location: Northeastern/Mid-Atlantic

Project Summary: Fort Dix and USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service have partnered for eight years to protect water quality at an active military training base.

Jeffrey Novak, NRCS Volunteer

Resource Challenge

Fort Dix covers 31,000 acres used by the National Guard, the Reserves, and other branches of the military for training. Natural resource conservation is a must to insure that these lands continue to provide realistic training scenarios and that water qualtiy downstream is protected.

USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service in New Jersey has an Interagency Agreement to help the U.S. Army enhance training, mission readiness, and natural resources through integrated natural resource conservation.

Military lands can provide important environmental values in addition to their strategic importance.
Military lands can become islands of threatened and endangered species habitat as development increases around installations. Fort Dix protects 42 rare, threatened or endangered species.
Adequate natural resource information and analysis are needed to manage and sustain training lands.
The Military Services often lack the environmental expertise needed to manage these lands sustainably.

Examples of Key Partners

USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service

U. S. Army

Results and Accomplishments

Fort Dix and USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service have partnered for eight years. Their accomplishments include:

Vegetative Analysis for two years to determine effects of military training on the land
Development and revision of an Integrated Natural Resource Management Plan on all 31,000 acres
Stabilization of Firing Range Berms with vegetation
Shoreline stabilization on two lakes
Coordination and management of hundreds of volunteers on Earth Day and Public Lands Day: volunteers planted trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers, built hiking trails, picked up trash, built wildlife blinds, refurbished picnic tables, created interpretive trails, and more
Data layers for GIS system on Fort Dix
An Erosion Inventory of Fort Dix
Riparian Forest Buffer plantings
Watershed Inventory and Analysis
Creation of a partnership that maximizes expertise and initiative of federal agencies and private individuals to effectively reach conservation goals.

Innovation/Highlight

Interagency personnel and volunteers work cooperatively to improve and protect the environment on a military base

Project Contact

David Smart
State Resource Conservationist
USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service
220 Davidson Avenue 4th Floor
Somerset, NJ 08873
732-537-6051
david.smart@nj.usda.gov

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