Photo By John Hughel | A dedicated group of Oregon Military Department Environmental Branch staff members and...... read more read more
Subscribe
SALEM, Ore. - With picturesque coastlines, sweeping high desert terrains, lush river basins, and mountain ranges dense in forest and plant life, the Pacific Northwest boasts an abundance of biologically diverse topographies unlike almost anywhere else in the country. Throughout the state of Oregon, there are military installations and designated training areas in all of these regions. Maintaining these areas, both for the continuous training usage and long-term environmental protection, can be a demanding balancing act for the Oregon Military Department’s Installation Division and Environmental Branch. Their mission is to “provide mission-capable, sustainable, well-designed facilities and grounds to the Soldiers of the Oregon National Guard” and requires constant and consistent implementation.
During a recent sustainability project at Camp Rilea on March 29, staff members and volunteers took advantage of the pleasant early spring weather to plant trees and other foliage along one of the perimeter areas, adjacent to a visible public fence line on the installation. It also provided another opportunity to instill environmental stewardship at just one of the many military installations in the state.
“We work under AGI (Army Guard Installations), and we are here to help ensure our mission continues on state land, helping to regulate EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) guidance, while remaining compliant with federal and state laws,” said Rhande Shaw, a natural resource specialist with the Oregon Military Department’s Environmental Branch. “This could be anything from the Safe Drinking Water Act to the Endangered Species Act, or the protection of migratory birds…so compliance and conservation are important to ensure our lands are usable forever, essentially.”
The tree planting project was allocated funding from the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) for National Public Lands Day, held annually on the fourth Saturday of September since 1994, and has become one of the nation's largest single-day volunteer efforts. As part of that celebration last fall, volunteers planted 100 sagebrush plugs in a 17-acre plot at the Biak Training Center, leased from the Bureau of Land Management near Redmond. They also planted 400 pounds of native grass seed to fill part of the 460-acre range damaged by the McCaffery Fire in July 2024.
Camp Rilea is designated as public land, and there is an exposed area along a berm on the camp’s northern side that the department had been looking to address. The project aims to create a barrier against an invasive species where Scotch broom has been proliferating. This invasive plant can produce up to 10,000 seeds, which can remain viable in the soil for decades, outcompeting native plants. Scotch broom not only hinders the growth of native vegetation but also increases the intensity of wildfires due to its dense stands, which produce more heat when burned. This can elevate fires into the tree canopy, further escalating the fire risk.
“It’s [Scotch broom] everywhere, so by planting native species, we are protecting our land and continuing to support the pristine prairie habitat that we have here,” Shaw said, describing why a list of endangered species find refuge at Camp Rilea. “Suckley’s cuckoo bumblebee relies on our native prairie lands as well as native violets that grow here, along with protecting the silver spot butterfly.”
In May 2021, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Oregon reported that the Suckley’s cuckoo bumblebee, once common in prairies, grasslands, and meadows across the Western United States, has lost more than 50% of its historic range. This decline is primarily due to habitat loss caused by disease threats, invasive species, and global warming. As a result, the work done by the OMD’s Environmental Branch on this project and other long-term initiatives is crucial for promoting a healthy habitat.
The volunteers worked to create an abatement buffer with the new hedge row, planting 90 new native trees, 76 Pacific Wax Myrtle, then adding 24 laurels that have been naturalized in Oregon. The work went quickly with the shovels cutting into the moist soil and camaraderie filling the air.
“The ones on the sides,” Shaw said, pointing down the new row, “Those are Pacific Wax Myrtles, so they will hedge out just the same as the others, giving us a lot of visual and noise concealment. We’ll be both good stewards of the land and good neighbors in the community.”
With the project focused on invasive species, Shaw noted that coastal restoration was another important aspect. “The fruit grown by the Pacific Wax Myrtle is eaten by many kinds of birds common to the West Coast, most notably the Yellow-rumped warbler.”
The biggest challenge for the Environmental staff is that Oregon has three distinct ecological environments, so there is no “one size fits all approach” to managing land conservation.
“Not only does the Oregon Army National Guard have Camp Rilea here on the coast, but there are installations in the Willamette Valley like Camp Adair, and then over on the east side of the state is RTC,” said Janet Johnson, the Natural Resources manager for the Oregon Military Department. “So these are three completely different eco regions with their own whole set of plants, temperatures, species, and water usage issues.”
Almost all of the installations are designated as public lands. The Rees Training Center (RTC) at the former Umatilla Army Depot near Hermiston and the Biak Training Center are federal properties. Before it became the Rees Training Center, the former Umatilla Chemical Depot became a success story in itself, with recent animal habitats being revitalized. The burrowing owl population has soared back to life after nearly being eliminated in the early 2000s. Today, the largest population of burrowing owls in North America resides among the bunchgrass of the eastern Oregon military base.
Having also worked for over 15 years as an ornithologist, Johnson said there are similar connections between plant life, animal, and human interactions.
"So it's important to go with ecosystem health, so when you're creating that ecosystem diversity of species and variation of environments, they are great for soldier training – those two things go really well hand in hand.”
Although Johnson has been working for over 16 years on Department of Defense land management, she spent a considerable amount of her career in Arizona, where the environmental differences are a stark contrast to the Pacific Northwest. With the morning project nearly completed and the volunteers beginning to pack up, Johnson took time to expand on some of the distinctions.
"In some ways, I had to relearn a different type of forestry and included getting more familiar with wetlands, which was a very steep learning curve,” she said, expanding on how climate variations and healthy habitats nurture high-caliber military training environments.
In making her case earlier this year under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed that the monarch butterfly be afforded new protections. The Defense Department has been working with the USFWS to ensure that the same healthy ecosystem conditions necessary for the monarchs to thrive are also present for military troops training in realistic operational conditions on natural landscapes critical for sustaining mission readiness.
In discussing this enduring commitment, Ron Tickle, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for environmental management and restoration, told the Department of Defense news agency that mission readiness and species conservation are closely associated.
“Mission readiness is predicated on having sufficient access to open lands and ranges to enable our troops to train and test,” Tickle said. “To achieve this, the [Defense Department] actively conducts natural resources management that provides conservation benefits to millions of acres that it oversees.”
These collaborative efforts play an important role as training areas decrease over time, not only because of environmental impacts but also with commercial development encroachment. It’s not just training for today, but having sustainable property in perpetuity, so even just 50 years from now, soldiers will have realistic rehearsal atmospheres.
With more and more coastal prairies being encroached upon by invasive species, such as Scotch broom, Johnson said that not only is the Oregon silver spot butterfly being impacted, but so are other pollinators are starting to become threatened.
“Because we have to keep that land open, we have to keep that Scotch broom back,” she said, describing how important the environmental balance is for preserving essential Oregon military training areas. “Camp Rilea has some of the best coastal meadows remaining because of soldier training… It's not a coincidence.”
Protecting biodiversity and upholding robust environmental programs across installations statewide is crucial to ensure the long-term viability of military training facilities. These efforts are critical due to the diverse nature of training activities conducted on these lands, which range from live-fire weapons ranges and aviation operations to Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT), land navigation and fitness courses, and troop billeting. Minimizing operational disruptions helps maintain military readiness while upholding environmental stewardship.
“One of the most surprising things is how well species and biodiversity go well with soldier training,” Johnson said, looking out over a well-preserved open field at Camp Rilea. “You can piece those two together. My favorite part of the job is piecing together the natural resources aspect, which falls in line with soldier training… It’s a win-win.”
| Date Taken: | 04.21.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.22.2025 14:16 |
| Story ID: | 495895 |
| Location: | CAMP RILEA, OREGON, US |
| Web Views: | 108 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Environmental balance is essential for preserving vital Oregon military training areas, by John Hughel, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
