Integrated Training Area Management EA and Final FNSI

CHAPTER 1: PURPOSE AND NEED FOR ACTION1.1 INTRODUCTIONThe United States Army must maintain its capability to put overwhelming land combat power on futurebattlefields and defeat potential enemies. Decisive victories depend on the Army’s ability to deployrapidly, fight, self-sustain, and win quickly with minimum casualties. As the Department of Defense’spremiere land force, the Army relies on land to achieve its training and testing objectives and maintainforce readiness. Force readiness depends on high quality, realistic training. The Army must be allowed totrain as it will fight.The Army uses the Sustainable Range Program to improve the way it designs, manages, and uses rangesand to ensure that current and future doctrinal requirements are met. The goal of the Sustainable RangeProgram is to maximize the capability, availability, and accessibility of ranges and training land tosupport training and testing requirements. It consists of two core programs: the Range and Training LandProgram, which consists of range modernization and range operations; and the Integrated Training AreaManagement (ITAM) program, which consists of land management and land maintenance activities. Thisenvironmental assessment (EA) addresses the implementation of a USARAK ITAM Management Plan, acomprehensive and consistent approach towards implementing the ITAM program.1.1.1 Integrated Training Area ManagementThe Army recognizes that training to doctrinal standards under realistic combat conditions will affect theenvironment. Providing premiere and realistic training opportunities requires training lands to be in goodenvironmental condition. It is in overcoming the apparent conflict between force readiness andenvironmental stewardship that the ITAM program serves the overall needs of the Army. The ITAMprogram essentially acts as an ongoing mitigation program for Army training and testing activities. It isthe Army's formal strategy for focusing on sustained use of training and testing lands, and it provides theArmy with the sound planning and execution mandatory to protect Army land as an essential asset fortraining.The intent of the ITAM program is to systematically provide a uniform training land managementcapability across the total Army. The Army will manage its lands in a manner to ensure no net loss oftraining capabilities and to support current and future training and mission requirements. The integrationof stewardship principles into training land and conservation management practices ensures that theArmy’s lands remain viable to support future training and mission requirements.ITAM establishes a systematic framework for decision-making and management of Army training lands.It integrates elements of operational, environmental, master planning, and other programs that identifyand assess land use alternatives. The ITAM program also supports sound natural and cultural resourcesmanagement practices and stewardship of land assets while sustaining those assets to support training,testing, and other installation missions.ITAM achieves successful maintenance and management of Army training lands through its fivecomponent programs:• Training Requirements Integration (TRI) is a decision-support procedure that integrates allrequirements for land use within the natural and cultural resources management processes. TRIintegrates the installation training and testing requirements for land use derived from the Range_____________________________________________________________________________________________Environmental AssessmentUnited States Army Alaska, Integrated Training Area Management ProgramManagement Plan 1