NRI expands web tools to help protect military training spaces from incompatible development
With funding from DOD's Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation, NRI developed the new Texas Compatible Use Zones (TCUZ) Viewer (tcuz.nri.tamu.edu), the first centralized web tool to display military compatible use zones (using DOD AICUZ and ICUZ data) for active-duty installations across the state. The TCUZ Viewer helps anyone considering development near a military installation in Texas identify whether their location of interest may conflict with military operations in that area.
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Up to $3 million available for landowners to protect natural resources near Camp Bullis
The Camp Bullis Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) is now accepting applications from voluntary landowners interested in permanently protecting their land and natural resources through conservation easements. These tailored easements support compatible land uses, such as agriculture, wildlife habitat, and open space, that also help safeguard the military mission and training capabilities of Joint Base San Antonio–Camp Bullis.
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Working Lands, Wildlife: A Wild Goose Chase Win
In the rolling Baraboo Hills of Wisconsin, just a quarter mile from Aldo Leopold’s Shack—where A Sand County Almanac took root—a diverse group of two dozen gathered for the Wild Goose Chase II meeting. Private landowners, conservationists, federal agency leaders, policy experts, and academics united with a shared goal: conserving species while keeping America’s working lands thriving.
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Creative Solutions for Species Management: The ESA Toolbox
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.
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NRI Announces Funding for Land Management to Private Landowners within the Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape
The Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute (NRI), through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), is offering over $1 million in funding to support private landowners within the Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape.
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Advancing military readiness and ecological resiliency in the Hill Country
NRI facilitates private land conservation through the Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape
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SERPPAS: Red-cockaded Woodpecker Downlisted
We are excited to share the announcement from the Department of Interior that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is downlisting the red-cockaded woodpecker from endangered to threatened status under the Endangered Species Act.
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NRI Announces $2 Million for Conservation Easements in Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape
In response to the rapid urbanization surrounding Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis, NRI is offering $1.9 million in funding through the USDA NRCS Regional Conservation Partnership Program. This funding is available to help private landowners within the Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape area protect agricultural and open lands through conservation easements.
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New SERPPAS publication provides overview of living shoreline permitting and regulatory review
In a new publication, “Overview of Living Shoreline Permitting and Regulatory Review in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi,” University of Georgia experts partnered with the Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability (SERPPAS) to examine the use of “living shorelines” to stabilize the coastlines of military installations facing erosion and the regulatory landscape for project planners interested in implementing the nature-based solution.
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Six Texas freshwater mussels, the “livers of the rivers,” added to endangered species list
AP News, Dallas—The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared six species of freshwater mussels found in Central Texas as endangered and another as threatened. Environmental scientists refer to freshwater mussels as “the liver of the river” because they filter harmful substances like algae from bodies of water. But the species, once found in abundance in Central Texas, have declined in recent years due to population growth and development destroying its habitat.
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