(IVAR) - Final Report - Strategic Environmental Research and ...

environmental stewardship with mission readiness; otherwise, the availability of the land, sea,
and air space necessary to provide for realistic testing and training opportunities could be at risk.
Ecosystem management principles are employed as the basis for planning, training, and operations
at DoD installations. This conservation approach is accomplished through the development and
implementation of installation Integrated Natural Resources Management Plans (INRMPs), as
required by the Sikes Act Improvement Act of 1997 (16 U.S.C. 670a et seq.) for all DoD
installations with significant natural resources. These INRMPs are intended primarily to guide
installation commanders and their staff in the management of natural resources to ensure that there
is “no net loss in the capability of military installation lands to support the military mission of the
installation”. Military natural resources managers must also provide the metrics necessary to
measure conservation program successes and impacts on the installation mission. The
development and implementation of INRMPs also help DoD meet specific conservation
requirements mandated by the Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Clean Water
Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and a host of Executive Orders. The importance of these
requirements is further amplified in a variety of DoD Directives (e.g., DoD Directive
4715.3, “Environmental Conservation Program” and DoD Directive 3200.15, “Sustainment of
Ranges and Operating Areas (OPAREAs)”) and programs (e.g., DoD Partners in Flight).
The acquisition of baseline resource data on which to base INRMPs is essential to ensure the
DoD’s regulatory requirements are met, that there are no net losses to military capabilities, and
to generate the metrics necessary to measure conservation program impacts on military missions.
Significant resources are invested annually to survey and monitor diverse flora and fauna
populations and habitat types to accomplish these tasks.
One of the more crucial components of the DoD’s surveying and monitoring requirements is to
track changes in bird populations and to identify factors governing the distribution and abundance
of migratory birds on military lands and training routes. These monitoring activities are
necessary to comply with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703-712), the Memorandum
of Understanding required by Executive Order 13186 (“Responsibilities of Federal Agencies to
Protect Migratory Birds”), and the Migratory Bird Rule governing the incidental take of
migratory birds as required by Section 315 of the FY 2003 Defense Authorization Act. The
Migratory Bird Rule is the most binding requirement in that it mandates that DoD minimize,
mitigate, and monitor impacts to bird populations in order to accommodate incidental takes of
birds during mission operations. It is therefore essential that DoD develop and maintain the
capabilities necessary to acquire bird migration data necessary to provide the “incidental take”
provisions authorized by the Rule. Otherwise DoD testing and training operations and new
construction could be impeded with adverse impacts on military readiness.
Chapter 7 of 16 United States Code makes it unlawful at any time, by any means or in any
manner, to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill, any such bird or any
part, nest, or egg thereof, included in the terms of the conventions between the United States and
Great Britain for the protection of migratory birds concluded August 16, 1916 (39 Stat. 1702),
the United States and the United Mexican States for the protection of migratory birds and game
mammals concluded February 7, 1936, the United States and the Government of Japan for the
protection of migratory birds and birds in danger of extinction, and their environment concluded
March 4, 1972, and the convention between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics for the conservation of migratory birds and their environments concluded November
19, 1976.
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