By Rhishja Larson •
September 14, 2009
The Army’s proposal to move 1,000 desert tortoises has been placed on hold by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, amid concerns over the Army’s previous plan that resulted in the death of 252 out of 600 tortoises.
The Center for Biological Diversity announced that a plan by the Army to move over 1,000 federally and state-listed threatened desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) from their Fort Irwin habitat to Bureau of Land Management lands has successfully been halted.
By Ariel Schwartz •
August 1, 2009
The Army knows that extensive alternative energy installations are the best way to ensure continuous, reliable electricity production. That’s why the military organization is building the Department of Defense’s largest ever solar project at the Fort Irwin Base in California’s Mojave Desert.
By Jennifer Lance •
April 13, 2009
The US Department of Defense is the largest consumer of energy in the United States spending $18 billion a year. Coupled with economics, dwindling natural resources, and the dangers of transporting fuel in war zones, the military is looking towards alternative fuels.
By Alex Felsinger •
February 23, 2009
Scientists at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg are scrambling to stop two types of bats that live on the base from becoming endangered.
But it’s not entirely out of the goodness of their hearts — they admit that they do not want to deal with the hassle of having a listed endangered species in their midst. They already have to work around two endangered animals and three plant species on the base, and they don’t want to add two more.
By Alex Felsinger •
February 16, 2009
Often animals will show signals of disaster long before the human population is affected, leading researchers to seek widespread information of wildlife fatalities for both the safety of people and other animals.
While data of wildlife fatalities or infection exists in different agencies across the US, researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Fort Johnson are working on a pilot program to centralize the data to form an Environmental Surveillance Network in the South Carolina.
By Alex Felsinger •
December 12, 2008
We’ve covered Sea Shepherd and their new television show “Whale Wars” quite a bit the past couple months, and while we love the organization and the show, we must admit that we cringe every time they make a disastrous mistake on the TV show. But things are looking brighter for the next season, being filmed currently: Sea Shepherd has brought along a former US Navy Lieutenant, Jane Taylor.
Is sustainability a national security issue? Politicians, policy makers and academics may be willing to argue sides of that question, but for the U.S. Army, the answer seems to be “Yes, sir!” Following up on earlier announcements of solar arrays and emission reduction goals, the Army released its first annual sustainability report on Friday. Covering the period of FY 2004-2007, the report notes a number of encouraging trends:
- Sixteen Army installations with comprehensive Installation Sustainability Plans in place.
- 78% (301) of FY07 ArmyMilitary Construction projects designed to at least U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® new construction certification standards.
- 100% (161) installations with an Environmental Management System (EMS) in place with 31% in conformance to ISO14001
- 8.4% reduction in facility energy useintensity (KBtu/gross square foot/per year, since FY03)
Challenges still exist, of course. Among them:
- 35% increase in Hazardous Waste (HW) generation as reported for CY03 to CY06 and an 8% increase in pounds HWgenerated per $1000 net Army cost of operations.
- 11% increase in absolute Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) releases as reported for CY03 to CY06, but a 13% decrease in pounds TRI released per $1000 net Army cost of operations.
By Jennifer Lance •
October 14, 2008
In order to expand training operations at Fort Irwin, CA, the Army began relocating 770 desert tortoises in March 2008. Coyotes immediately began killing the relocated tortoises. In response to a lawsuit filed by The Center for Biological Diversity to stop the translocation, the Army suspended the operation. Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity explained:
We predicted that the translocation of tortoises from Fort
[...]
By Ariel Schwartz •
October 7, 2008
Despite its recent foray into sustainable practices, the United States Army isn’t known as an environmental leader. Now the Army is trying to prove its greenness with the world’s strongest solar array. Yesterday, the Army announced that it plans to construct a 500 MW solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert at Fort Irwin. Currently, the United States’ largest solar array is a 15 MW plant at Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas.
By Joshua S Hill •
July 29, 2008
In what is just another example in a long stream of such, the US Army is beginning to realize that it is not only good for publicity, but essentially cheaper, to turn their operations green… er. Going green was never solely about making some cheap points on the PR board; it has, from the start, been a cheaper option across the board.
The Army had begun pushing for environmental sustainability in all of their bases, starting with Fort Bragg in North Carolina. And they’re thinking it through as well; not only are they thinking about the current footprint (I’m not going to say it), they’re thinking about the future as well. Since 2001, each village set up within Fort Bragg for training purposes has been made up of shipping containers, reducing the cost from $400,000 to $25,000, and keeping the shipping containers out of the solid waste stream.
But the goal is not solely to save money, but also lives as well.
