[CPEO-MEF] Encroachment is a Two-Way Street

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

[To download the full 6-page report as a 1.7 MB PDF file, go to 
http://www.cpeo.org/pubs/2-WayStreet.pdf]

Encroachment is a Two-Way Street

By Lenny Siegel
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
September, 2007

For the past several years, all of the U.S. armed services have been 
confronting "encroachment," civilian development near the fencelines of 
military installations as well as under low-level flights paths. Such 
development often leads to noise complaints by new residents or other 
property users, and it may increase the risk of accidents. Furthermore, 
new development often turns military ranges into islands of habitat, 
increasing military responsibility for protecting threatened and 
endangered species. Thus, encroachment has threatened the ability of 
ground troops to train and air services to operate.

While the Pentagon's proposals to weaken several environmental 
regulations have received most of the attention from the press, advocacy 
organizations, and Congress, the Defense Department responded to 
encroachment on a much broader front. It launched scientific research 
into the environmental and community impact of its operations. It 
boosted programs for conducting land use studies in cooperation with 
local government. It developed systems for managing its natural 
resources sustainably. And perhaps most important, under what is now 
known as the Readiness and Environmental Partnership Initiative, it 
established partnerships with land trusts and local governments to 
create buffer zones, many of which also serve as protected habitat, 
around military facilities.

These programs - particularly the buffer zones - have been remarkably 
successful. Conservation organizations and many local governments are 
more than willing to partner with the Defense Department. Yet in many 
locations the armed services find themselves in direct conflict with 
community activists.

Therefore, the Center for Public Environmental Oversight evaluated 
public stakeholders' views on encroachment and military range 
sustainability. In 2007 I visited Camp Lejeune, a major Marine Corps 
base in North Carolina, and Army facilities on O'ahu, Hawaii. At both 
sites I met with community members and military range officials. In 
addition, in the course of my work I was contacted by community members 
near air bases such as Shaw Air Force Base (South Carolina) and the Key 
West Naval Air Station. Their complaint was additional noise resulting 
from changes in military air operations. I also heard from Colorado 
residents concerned about the planned expansion of Ft. Carson's Piñon 
Canyon Maneuver Site.

Though activists and other concerned residents tend to support the 
military's ventures into sustainability, they often tell a different 
story from Defense officials about encroachment. They appear most upset 
when the military expands its operations into new areas - that is, where 
the armed forces are encroaching on civilian activity. I did not try to 
referee disputes between the military and its neighbors. Rather, I 
sought to document community concerns, which are inherently influenced 
by subjective perception.

...

--


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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