Integrated Training Area Management EA and Final FNSI

and Training Land Program, the range operations and training land management processes, andthe installation training readiness requirements with the installation's natural resources conditions.• Land Rehabilitation and Maintenance (LRAM) is the management process that cites protocols forreducing long-term impacts of training and testing by combining preventive and corrective landreclamation, reshaping, rehabilitation, repair, and maintenance practices. It involves repair ofdamaged lands and use of land construction technology to avoid future damage to training lands.LRAM uses technologies such as revegetation and erosion control techniques to maintain soils andvegetation required for accomplishment of the military mission. These efforts are specificallydesigned to maintain quality military training lands and to minimize long-term costs associated withland rehabilitation or additional land purchase.• Sustainable Range Awareness (SRA) is the component of the ITAM program that seeks to foster aconservation ethic in military personnel. It is an educational and outreach process that educatesrange operations personnel and military and non-military land users on their environmentalstewardship responsibilities. The educational materials produced by the SRA program describethe principles of land stewardship and the practices of reducing training and/or testing impacts.• Range and Training Land Assessment (RTLA) is the monitoring component of the ITAM programwhich seeks to maintain a balance between the use of training lands to maximize militarypreparedness and the conservation of biologically diverse and functioning ecosystems. RTLAprovides for the collecting, inventorying, monitoring, managing, and analyzing of tabular andspatial data concerning land conditions and natural resources at U.S. Army Alaska (USARAK).RTLA also provides data needed to evaluate the capability of training lands to meet multiple usedemands on a sustainable basis.• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is the foundational support element of the ITAMprogram. It is an important tool for resource (cultural, environmental, natural, and militarytraining) management and an important component of the USARAK decision support system.GIS is a computer-based tool capable of assembling, storing, manipulating, and displayinggeographically referenced information, (i.e., data identified according to their locations). GIStechnology integrates common database operations such as query and statistical analysis with theunique visualization and geographic analysis benefits offered by maps.United States Army Alaska is committed to providing its soldiers with the best training possible. As such,its training lands must be maintained and managed in order to allow soldiers to train to standard.1.2 PURPOSE AND NEED FOR ACTIONThe guiding principle of Army environmental stewardship is that all activities, including training andtesting, must be environmentally sustainable and meet current needs without compromising the integrityof the environment for future generations. The intent of the ITAM program is to systematically provide auniform training land management capability across the total Army.Fulfilling USARAK’s mission to provide ready combat forces for worldwide joint military operations,crisis response, and peacetime engagements requires top-notch training facilities for soldiers to prepare.Realistic training scenarios require ongoing range and training land maintenance and upgrades in order tomaintain a high quality training environment. With repeated use and no maintenance, training landsdeteriorate. Use of increasingly sophisticated equipment without range improvements or upgrades canalso cause training lands to become outdated and ineffective. Providing up-to-date training infrastructure_____________________________________________________________________________________________Environmental AssessmentUnited States Army Alaska, Integrated Training Area Management ProgramManagement Plan 2