The legacy of federal military lands in the US: a geographic retrospective: William W. Doe III

Today, military lands constitute over 30 million acres of federal land throughout the US, providing a critical resource for military training and testing activities. These lands also provide space for stationing of troops and housing their family members, and provide important social and economic benefits to surrounding communities. As will be discussed in this chapter, these installations also provide unintended environmental benefits to society, both in natural and cultural resources, given their unique locations and protection from outside development. In many instances, military lands have become primary refuge for many threatened and endangered species. Understandably, military activities on these lands can also be inherently destructive, resulting in a variety ofIncreasingly, these lands face public scrutiny and encroachment from private, public, and commercial sector activities near their boundaries. Thus, these lands and their legacy face new challenges from internal and external phenomena that have geographic, environmental, and social contexts and implications for the decades ahead. New and emerging land management approaches both inside and outside the installations are taking shape and will define the future for many of these lands.