Integrated Training Area Management EA and Final FNSI

disturbed. Further, hardening low water crossings would concentrate vehicular impacts to a specified areaand minimize impacts to vegetation along the rest of streambanks. Trail closure would allow areas withcompacted or damaged vegetation to recover.Best management practices for erosion control would be utilized in support of LRAM projects (AppendixB) and would have beneficial impacts to vegetation. The erosion control best management practicesdiscussed in Section 3.1, Soil Resources, would also be beneficial to vegetation establishment andperseverance.RTLABy maintaining a balance between the use of training lands to maximize military preparedness and theconservation of biologically diverse and functioning ecosystems, RTLA would monitor the capability oftraining lands to meet multiple use demands on a sustainable basis. It would seek to help avoid excessivemilitary use that exhausts natural resources. The RTLA program would include measures for monitoringinvasive species; Alaska Land Condition Trend Analysis (AK LCTA) (described in Section 3.1); rare,threatened, and endangered species; and impacts to vegetation from military training.Invasive species monitoring would include AK LCTA surveys and forestry surveys. The AK LCTAprogram would conduct annual natural resource monitoring of training lands and would documentvegetation, including invasive species. Forestry inventories would be conducted during field seasons andwould record invasive species in databases for future monitoring and management efforts.Threatened, endangered, rare, uncommon, or priority flora species are identified through planning-levelflora surveys, AK LCTA surveys, and forest monitoring. The Alaska Natural Heritage Program’s PlantTracking Database is used to guide efforts to locate uncommon plant taxa. Flora planning-level surveysare conducted every ten years and are large-scale monitoring efforts that span a variety of projects. Theirmain purpose is to document threatened and endangered species. AK LCTA conducts annual naturalresource monitoring and documents threatened, endangered, rare, uncommon, or priority plant species.Rare plant surveys are conducted in areas of potential development when needed. Forest inventoriesrecord threatened, endangered, rare, uncommon, or priority forestry species.Military activities, such as cross-country maneuvers, digging of defensive fighting positions,snowplowing in winter, and bivouacs, can disturb training areas. USARAK military exercise monitoringmethodologies would focus on monitoring training areas where military exercises are being or have beenconducted. Qualitative assessments by Environmental Resources Department staff would be conductedduring large military field training exercises to prevent undue land damage and to ensure rapid and properremediation measures. Assessments would include optical surveying of areas where military exerciseshave occurred and documenting presence/absence, type, and degree of disturbance. Monitoring effortswould focus on ensuring military requirements for minimizing impacts to natural resources are being metduring training exercises. Requirements aimed at minimizing vegetation impacts are described in the SRAprogram above.Through monitoring both vegetation and compliance with military regulations aimed at minimizingimpacts to vegetation, the RTLA program is beneficial to vegetation resources on USARAK lands.Alternative 2: Implement ITAM Program through a Management Plan (Proposed Action)Under this alternative, the ITAM program would be implemented through a management plan, whichwould include standard operating procedures for LRAM and RTLA projects. Impacts to vegetation onUSARAK lands due to TRI, LRAM, SRA, RTLA, and GIS activities would be similar to those described_____________________________________________________________________________________________Environmental AssessmentUnited States Army Alaska, Integrated Training Area Management ProgramManagement Plan 28