The Department of Defense’s (DOD) ability to conduct realistic live-fire training, weapons system testing, and essential operations is vital to preparing a more lethal and resilient combat force. To meet these training needs, warfighters rely on unencumbered access to open lands and ranges that contain a variety of environments and replicate the operational environment in which they may fight. DOD manages and maintains nearly 27 million acres of land, water, and airspace across the United States and its territories, which aim to support mission-related activities and further the national defense strategy. Realistic environments are essential to field testing new technologies and for the military to train, which requires access to deserts, grasslands, rainforests, tundra permafrost, coastlines, and other ecosystems. Training and testing in varied ecosystems prepare our warfighters for any challenges they may face while conducting global operations. DOD’s Natural Resources (NR) Program ensures no net loss in the ability of these military installation lands and waters to sustain a combat-ready and lethal military force.

To further the national defense mission, the DOD works with federal, state, and local partners to protect strategic defense priorities, promote flexibility and certainty for the DOD to execute its mission, and support partner missions. For example, the Recovery and Sustainment Partnership Initiative (RASP), established in 2018 and affirmed in 2024, builds on years of collaboration between the DOD and the Department of the Interior (DOI). The RASP, supported by Stephanie Hertz, Coordinator for the Department of Defense (DOD) Natural Resources Program within the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Environment and Energy Resilience), focuses on reducing and alleviating Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulatory constraints on DOD lands while contributing to species recovery. Through the RASP, DOD and DOI develop solutions that support military readiness by exploring innovative ESA approaches that provide greater flexibility for military installations to conduct their missions, streamline regulatory processes, and ensure resources are used efficiently and effectively to produce outcomes that will support DOD’s mission, landscapes, and decision space in the future.

Today, the DOD manages over 500 species listed as either threatened or endangered under the ESA and hundreds more “species-at-risk” that may warrant federal protection in the future. The DOD is committed to providing conditions compatible with conducting military training, testing, and operational missions while ensuring the conservation of ecosystems on which these species depend. However, in some circumstances, overlap between military mission activities and species habitats can result in area access and training constraints. Creatively managing the military mission and species conservation can reduce—or even eliminate—potential conflicts.

Bringing our disciplines together, the NRI team is ready to introduce the new ESA Toolbox. This online, interactive publication illustrates the strategies and concepts drawn from real-world examples that can support both mission activities and conservation. These tools are meant to assist DOD natural resource managers on installations and the operators they support. Because military installations operate in different environments and conduct various missions, there is no single solution for implementing the ESA, and these tools can and should be adapted to address individual circumstances. To demonstrate these creative solutions, the toolbox is divided into four tool kits: (1) basic tools, (2) tools that create efficiencies, (3) tools that extend beyond the installation, and (4) tools that inform regulatory decisions.

Opening the ESA Toolbox

Basic Tools

The DOD has various tools that allow it to carry out conservation efforts at any point in the listing process. For species that have not yet been listed, the Sikes Act enables the DOD to carry out proactive conservation that could potentially preclude the need to list.

In Case Study 1, the toolbox demonstrates how authority under the Sikes Act allowed the DOD to establish an interagency conservation agreement (ICA) for the flat-tailed horned lizard (Phrynosoma mcallii) that resulted in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) withdrawing its proposed listing for the species. If a species does become listed, Section 7(a)(1) of the ESA states that the DOD should conserve any species extant on their lands or affected by their actions.

Case Study 2 describes proactive conservation for three species in the lower Mississippi River—the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used its authorities under Section 7(a)(1) to develop and execute a conservation plan to maintain and improve habitat values for the interior least tern, pallid sturgeon, and fat pocketbook mussel without affecting its civil works responsibilities. Section 7(a)(2) requires federal agencies to consult with the Services to ensure that the action an agency funds, permits, or carries out will not jeopardize the continued existence of a listed species or destroy or negatively modify its designated critical habitat. This section has generated a large majority of litigation under Section 7 and is well-understood by federal agencies, but some techniques can make the process less burdensome.

In Case Study 3, we outline the USFWS’s web-based consulting support tool, Information for Planning and Consultation (IPaC). This project-planning tool aims to streamline the process by providing information that helps users determine whether a project will affect federally listed species or designated critical habitats.

Tool Kit 1: Streamlining the Process

The first tool kit examines two conservation strategies and approaches that can potentially streamline ESA Section 7(a)(2) compliance: programmatic consultations resulting in a Programmatic Biological Opinion (PBO) and the issuance of a Biological Opinion (BO) or PBO based on an installation’s Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan (INRMP). Each featured case study shares the attributes of a positive regulatory relationship, competence on the part of the installation natural resources staff, a consistently proactive institutional record of delivering conservation results, and time and trust between all parties.

Tool Kit 2: Looking Beyond the Fence

The second tool kit examines strategies to meet installation conservation goals by conserving wildlife species outside installation boundaries. If wildlife conservation inside the installation boundaries may restrict the flexibility to train, test, and operate, sometimes this is an effective alternative that meets ESA obligations and benefits both wildlife and the military mission. Off-installation conservation can serve as an effective “multiplier” by creating geographical buffers around military lands, improving conservation outcomes, involving more parties, precluding the listing of species, improving species baselines, using conservation credits to relieve DOD responsibilities, and improving the natural infrastructure that supports an installation’s resiliency.

Tool Kit 3: Engaging in the Conversation

The final tool kit explores three opportunities for early engagement in the ESA process—Candidate Conservation Agreements (CCAs), Species Status Assessments (SSAs), and an agency-wide programmatic consultation. The DOD uses these tools to inform regulatory decisions about species conditions, conservation efforts, and military requirements. Each allows DOD to shape strategies that provide efficient, consistent, and effective conservation of imperiled species while maintaining military readiness.

Considerations

In evaluating the tools for potential application, it is essential to recognize that each of the examples in the toolbox was developed to address the particular facts and circumstances presented; as such, the tools should be considered as examples that can and should be adapted to address specific installation needs, grounded in the facts and circumstances of the installation.

Additionally, the tools represent examples of creative application of the ESA and do not represent the universe of available solutions. We know the tools presented will illustrate the value of DOD installations and their proactive efforts to avoid potential species/mission conflicts and that these tools will serve as inspiration and support for installations in developing their solutions to effectively conserve and recover species while increasing the flexibility to conduct their military mission activities.

View the toolbox as an interactive publication.

The ESA Toolbox was developed to support mission-related activities and further the national defense strategy by a collaborative team of DOD representatives, researchers, conservation law practitioners, and policymakers, including Stephanie Hertz, Jim Van Ness, Mike Brennan, Tad McCall, and Tiffany McFarland.