Integrated Training Area Management EA and Final FNSI

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is essential to USARAK’s commitment of providing its soldiers with the highest quality training possible.Therefore, USARAK seeks the best possible approach to managing its training lands in order to fulfillmission requirements.Currently, the ITAM program performs range and training land maintenance and improvements in an adhocfashion without a formal, systematic approach. A management plan would institute standardoperating procedures and best management practices for the LRAM and RTLA programs to provideconsistency among management approaches, increase oversight, and streamline processes and proceduresto increase ITAM program efficiency. Additionally, many ITAM projects utilize construction contractors.Establishing standard operating procedures through the USARAK ITAM Management Plan will ensurestandardization of technique and allow ITAM to more easily predict possible impacts and to determineefficacy of project procedures.All ITAM projects must meet applicable regulatory requirements before projects can be implemented.These include the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), National Historic Preservation Act,Archaeological Resources Protection Act, Clean Water Act, Alaska State laws, and USARAKregulations. Currently, NEPA documentation is inconsistent between ITAM projects. USARAK seeks toinstitute a method to ensure consistent NEPA documentation through this EA and successive projectspecificenvironmental and cultural analyses.1.2.1 ITAM Program ObjectivesThe following ITAM goals outline the program’s mission to steward Army training land (AR 350-4ITAM):• Utilize current infrastructure to the most efficient extent possible in order to minimize cost andnatural resource impacts.• Achieve optimal sustained use of lands for the execution of realistic training, by providing asustainable core capability that balances usage, condition, and level of maintenance.• Implement a management and decision-making process that integrates Army training and othermission requirements for land use with sound natural and cultural resources management.• Advocate proactive conservation and land management practices.• Align Army training land management priorities with training, testing, and readiness priorities.The objectives for meeting ITAM program goals are as follows:• Determine the capacity of the land to sustain training and testing through diagnostic methods,models, and tools; and support assignment of the optimum type, frequency, duration and intensityof training and testing that can be conducted on a given parcel.• Identify the risks and costs associated with exceeding the capacity of the land.• Allocate training land uses, including the type, frequency, duration and intensity of use, based onthe capacity of the land to sustain those uses.• Support sustained use of land by planning, programming, and executing repair and maintenanceprojects and by reconfiguring and redesigning training and testing areas to meet recognizedrequirements.• Educate users to prevent avoidable damage to the land and to minimize unavoidable damageresulting from training, testing, and other mission activities._____________________________________________________________________________________________Environmental AssessmentUnited States Army Alaska, Integrated Training Area Management ProgramManagement Plan 3
• Establish a defined land condition base line for natural and cultural resources that will bemaintained through ITAM and is relevant to the installation environmental setting and missionactivity.• Monitor land and natural resource conditions and determine trends in those conditions.• Stabilize and sustain natural and cultural resource conditions by changing type, frequency,duration, or intensity of use, or by applying adjusted levels of repair and maintenance.• Increase understanding of Army mission training requirements by educating environmental andnatural resources personnel.1.2.2 LocationImplementation of the USARAK ITAM Management Plan is proposed for Alaska’s three main Armyinstallations: Fort Richardson, Fort Wainwright, and Donnelly Training Area (Figure 1).Fort RichardsonFort Richardson encompasses approximately 61,000 acres. The post is located in south-central Alaskaadjacent to Anchorage, Eagle River, and Elmendorf Air Force Base (Figure 1). The Knik Arm of CookInlet borders the north side of the post, and Chugach State Park lies to the south and southeast. The townof Eagle River lies along the northeast border. Anchorage and Elmendorf Air Force Base form thewestern boundary.The western boundary is approximately 11 miles long, from the Knik Arm to its terminus besideAnchorage and Chugach State Park. The eastern border is 21 miles and also runs from Knik Arm toChugach State Park. Fort Richardson is approximately six miles across, from east to west.The cantonment area is situated at the base of the Chugach foothills, on the alluvial floodplain betweenthe Chugach Mountains and the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet. Located approximately seven miles fromdowntown Anchorage, the cantonment area is bordered on the west by Elmendorf Air Force Base, on thenorth by training areas, on the east by the Glenn Highway, and on the south by Ship Creek, recreationalareas, and training areas.Fort WainwrightFort Wainwright encompasses approximately 917,000 acres and lies near Fairbanks, 120 miles south ofthe Arctic Circle. The installation is located in central Alaska, north of the Alaska Range in the TananaRiver Valley (Figure 1). The Main Post consists of 13,700 acres, Tanana Flats Training Area is over655,000 acres, and Yukon Training Area totals 247,952 acres.The Main Post of Fort Wainwright is situated on a flat alluvial plain. It is bordered on the west by the cityof Fairbanks and on the other three sides by open space that is owned by the state of Alaska. Tanana FlatsTraining Area is located south of Main Post. Its north and east boundaries are formed by the TananaRiver, while the Wood River borders the western edge. Yukon Training Area is located 16 miles eastsoutheastof Fairbanks, and the post is bound by the Chena River on the north and the Salcha River to thesouth. Eielson Air Force Base is located on Yukon Training Area’s west border._____________________________________________________________________________________________Environmental AssessmentUnited States Army Alaska, Integrated Training Area Management ProgramManagement Plan 4
Page 1: DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMYUNITED STATES
Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTSCHAPTER 1: PURPOSE
Page 7 and 8: Table 3.9 Summary of Impacts to Hum
Page 9: and Training Land Program, the rang
Page 13: Donnelly Training AreaDonnelly Trai
Page 17 and 18: determine whether additional NEPA a
Page 19 and 20: Table 2.2 Summary of Environmental
Page 21 and 22: CHAPTER 3: DESCRIPTION OF THE AFFEC
Page 23 and 24: Maneuver Trail Maintenance and Upgr
Page 25 and 26: Mungoven 2001). Engineering soil ty
Page 27 and 28: projects and would result in wide,
Page 29 and 30: growth. Wind and sand fences would
Page 31 and 32: iological impacts of military train
Page 33 and 34: willow scrub communities are common
Page 35 and 36: disturbed. Further, hardening low w
Page 37 and 38: disturbance or removal, best manage
Page 39 and 40: SRAThrough the SRA program, soldier
Page 41 and 42: Ship Creek (from the Glenn Highway
Page 43 and 44: effective site drainage. Required p
Page 45 and 46: Game 1998). More information on wil
Page 47 and 48: Fort Wainwright and associated land
Page 49 and 50: Long-term beneficial impacts to wil
Page 51 and 52: 1998).The Alaska Interagency Wildla
Page 53 and 54: Prescribed burns, mechanical thinni
Page 55 and 56: unplanned fires, soldiers are direc
Page 57 and 58: USARAK also implemented the USARTRA
Page 59 and 60: LRAM projects beneficial to public
Page 61 and 62:
Cumulative ImpactsPast military act
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Two surveys conducted on Yukon Trai
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LRAM activities under Alternative 1
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3.9.1 Affected EnvironmentFort Rich
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SRA program, which educates soldier
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3.10.2 Environmental ConsequencesAl
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Fort Richardson receives few compla
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Table 3.11 Summary of Impacts 1 to
Page 77 and 78:
oads and hauling fill and rock mate
Page 79 and 80:
CHAPTER 4: PREPARERS AND CONTRIBUTO
Page 81 and 82:
Benson, A.M. 1999. Distribution of
Page 83 and 84:
Neely, R. J. 2001. Early Mining His
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CHAPTER 6: AGENCIES AND INDIVIDUALS
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Project NameBulldog TrailWidening P
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Project NameYukon TrainingArea Demo
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Project NameYukon TrainingArea Firi
Page 93 and 94:
Project NameEddy Drop ZoneVegetatio
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Project Name33 Mile LoopRoad Shortc
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APPENDIX B: BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTIC
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Sediment Trap(Permanent) SeedingSil
Page 101 and 102:
APPENDIX C: SAMPLE RECORD OF ENVIRO
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APPENDIX D: ITAM PROJECT ASSESSMENT
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Fire ManagementYes No□ □ Could
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APPENDIX E: AGENCY COMMENTSThe foll
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___________________________________
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___________________________________
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Sent: Monday, June 13, 2005 5:00 PM
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Second paragraph - I do not underst
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sentence could read, "The trees are
Page 119 and 120:
The third paragraph seems too speci
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USARAK does not have a current five
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Integrated Training Area Management EA and Final FNSI

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