SBCT Final EIS - Govsupport.us

Chapter 5 – Environmental Consequencesexpected to affect off-post land uses. The surrounding areas are uninhabited federal lands and noresidential areas, schools, hospitals, or businesses are expected to be affected. These impacts wouldbe localized and temporary during training activities and are expected to be less than significant. Nomitigation is necessary.The following measures are currently in place and are continually revised and reviewed to respond tonew or increasing impacts to land uses and recreation resources.• Continue to implement Range Development Plan, involving maintenance projects on all firingranges such as target repair and replacement, target mechanism maintenance and repair, andmaintenance of range buildings.• Continue to implement ITAM Work Plan. The ITAM Work Plan includes projects to repair andrevegetate maneuver land. Repair and revegetation improves the condition of the land and raisesthe land condition measurement. The ITAM work plan includes projects that help to matchtraining requirements with capabilities of maneuver land, reducing impacts on sensitive habitats.Environmental awareness projects educate Soldiers to minimize unnecessary damage. The ITAMWork Plan also includes projects to assess the condition of the land through monitoring.• Continue to implement INRMPs. The INRMPs contain projects designed to provideenvironmental stewardship and mitigate impacts from military training. Erosion control projectsreduce the impacts from erosion. Soil and water quality monitoring protocols to detect themigration of contamination from impact areas are currently being developed at DTA.• Continue environmental, conservation, and cultural resources management programs.• Continue to implement recreational vehicle use policies, per the most recent INRMPs. TheINRMPs lay out specific actions to maintain and improve public access and recreationopportunities on USARAK lands.• Continue to implement USARTRAK automated check-in phone system. This would provideinformation regarding daily closures and should greatly simplify the public access process.• Continue to streamline public access to USARAK lands through the Recreational Access Permit.• Maintain the extended 2-year renewal duration on the DTA Recreational Access Permits. A twoyearpermit duration would simplify public access to USARAK lands.• Continue or increase hunter safety education courses and work with ADFG to provideeducational opportunities on USARAK lands. Hunter safety courses and educationalopportunities would allow USARAK to better and more safely manage its lands for a wide rangeof public uses.• Monitor recreational usage of each training area through the USARTRAK phone system. Thiswould inform USARAK and ADFG about use patterns, which should help to improvemanagement for public access and recreation.Some programs already propose measures that would mitigate many impacts to USARAK land usesand recreation resources. These programs are only partially implemented and funded. The proposedmitigation for Alternative B is to implement fully plans and projects that have already been identifiedby USARAK’s INRMPs and other plans.February 2008 5-91 2/25th SBCT Final EIS