Integrated Training Area Management EA and Final FNSI

office buildings, ball fields and open fields. Hunting and ORRV use is not permitted in the cantonmentarea.Access to Tanana Flats Training Area is more difficult than to other parts of Fort Wainwright. TananaFlats Training Area is bordered by the Tanana and Wood rivers and there are no bridges into the trainingarea. Ground vehicles can access Tanana Flats Training Area in winter on constructed ice bridges.Summer access is by boat or plane only. Most of the training area is wetlands and largely categorized as aModified Use area. Yukon Training Area is readily accessible from the ground. Access is primarilyavailable via Manchu Road through Eielson Air Force Base. Additional access is possible via JohnsonRoad, which connects to the Richardson Highway.Donnelly Training AreaRecreational opportunities at Donnelly Training Area are similar to those found on Fort Wainwright. Inaddition to ground access and roads, much of Donnelly Training Area is available to ORRVs and aerialaccess. ORRV and winter trails exist across both the eastern and western training areas. The 33-MileLoop Road is one of the more popular trail systems on Donnelly Training Area East. Donnelly TrainingArea West is accessible in winter when the Delta River is frozen over, or by air or boat in summer.Donnelly Training Area East is primarily managed as Open Use. The exception is Jarvis Creek and someisolated wetland areas that are considered Limited Use areas. As portions of Donnelly Training Area Westare primarily designated as impact area, most of the central training area is Off-Limits. Modified andOpen Use areas exist to the north and south, along the northern boundary of the training area and thefoothills of the Alaska Range.3.7.2 Environmental ConsequencesAlternative 1: Continue ITAM Program without a Management Plan (No Action)Under the No Action Alternative, the ITAM program would continue without a management plan. TheTRI, LRAM, SRA, RTLA, and GIS components of the ITAM program would continue to have beneficialimpacts on public access and recreation. Prior to public use of USARAK lands, Recreational AccessPermits would continue to be required in addition to use of the USARTRAK system to check in andobtain information on range closures.TRIBy integrating consideration of natural resources with range operations and training requirements, the TRIprogram would ensure land management practices that both meet the Army’s needs while minimizingimpacts on the environment. Minimizing the impacts of Army training on USARAK lands would enhancethe quality of Army lands for public recreation.LRAMLRAM projects would reduce long-term impacts of training and testing by combining preventive andcorrective land reclamation, reshaping, rehabilitation, repair, and maintenance practices. While theseefforts would be specifically designed to maintain quality military training lands, they would also maintainquality lands for public recreation. Recreational activities would be temporarily disallowed in some areaswhere LRAM projects would be conducted. However, these access closures would be temporary,localized, and have minor adverse effects on public access and recreation. Historically, LRAMconstruction projects are completed in ten days on average. The longest projects (such as expansion of adrop zone) could take up to two summers to complete, but this would be infrequent._____________________________________________________________________________________________Environmental AssessmentUnited States Army Alaska, Integrated Training Area Management ProgramManagement Plan 51