The Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape Partnership (CBSL) has received a $5.1 million award from the US Department of Defense (DOD) to protect groundwater supplies in the Texas Hill Country. Funds from DOD’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Challenge Program will bolster the City of San Antonio’s Edwards Aquifer Protection Program as well as support volunteering landowners around Camp Bullis to design and implement restoration projects that mitigate erosion and enhance groundwater replenishment.
“This award is a great opportunity to support private land stewardship,” said Daniel Oppenheimer, Land Program Director, Hill Country Alliance and CBSL Coordinator. “Good land stewardship benefits everyone that relies on groundwater and natural resources – the landowner, community, and Joint Base San Antonio. It’s a win-win.”
– Hill Country Alliance – Land Program
U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SC
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE (January 30, 2023)
The Department of Defense Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program today announced $24 million in funding for the 2023 REPI Challenge Program. Thirteen projects will benefit 26 installations and the communities that support them. These awards will leverage nearly $50 million in partner contributions. Three projects directly benefit the Sentinel Landscapes Partnership.
This is the 12th consecutive year of the REPI Challenge Program. As noted on its website, the REPI Challenge supports “…innovative projects that limit incompatible development, enhance military installation resilience to climate change and extreme weather events, and/or relieve current or anticipated environmental restrictions on military testing, training, or operations at locations hosting key mission capabilities.”
“The 2023 REPI Challenge Program includes projects that will make key mission capabilities of strategic importance more resilient to climate change,” said Peter Stangel, Chief Operating Office at the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities. “Enhancing forest health and reducing wildfire risk are important strategies. For example, Arizona and New Jersey installations are using proactive partnerships to reduce the possibility of potentially catastrophic wildfires on people, infrastructure, and communities.” The Endowment provides administrative support to the REPI Challenge and the Sentinel Landscapes Program as a service to the Department of Defense.
A fact sheet on the 2023 REPI Challenge Projects and information about a webinar highlighting some of the projects is available at http://www.repi.mil/Buffer-Projects/REPI-Challenge/.
The 2023 REPI Challenge funding recipients are:
- Naval Observatory Flagstaff & Camp Navajo, AZ
- Northern Arizona Fuels and Wildfire Risk Reduction; $1.0M
- U.S. Army Garrison Hawaiʻi, Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi, HI
- Increasing Resilience of Endangered Wildlife Found on Critical Landscapes; $2.9M
- U.S. Army Garrison–Hawaiʻi, Pōhakuloa Training Area, HI
- Nāpuʻu Natural Resource Protection: Mitigating Rare Plant Impacts; $1.3M
- U.S. Army Garrison–Hawaiʻi: Makua Military Reservation, Schofield Barracks, Kahuku Training Area, Poamoho Training Area, HI
- Ecosystem Restoration and Rare Plant and Animal Preservation on O’ahu; $2.7M
- Fort Huachuca, AZ
- Land Protection and Climate Resilience, Fort Huachuca Sentinel Landscape Partnership; $1.3M
- Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA
- Advancing Sentinel Landscape Priorities to Build Prairie and Working Landscape Resilience; $2.4M
- Joint Region Marianas: Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, Andersen Air Force Base, GU
- Landscape Scale Feral Pig Control in Northern Guam; $1.2M
- Joint Region Marianas: Naval Base Guam, Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, Andersen Air Force Base, GU
- Guam Department of Agriculture Native Plant Nursery Upgrades for Island-Wide Habitat Enhancement; $1.9M
- Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, Warren Grove Range, Naval Weapons Station Earle, Sea Girt National Guard Training Facility, AEGIS Combat System Engineering Site, NJ
- Infrastructure Resilience and Natural Resource Enhancement; $995K
- Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi, Pōhakuloa Training Area, HI
- Detection and Management of High-Impact Aquatic and Terrestrial Invasive Species; $3.1M
- Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Naval Base Coronado, Naval Base Ventura County Point Mugu, Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, CA
- West Coast Beach Breeding Bird Conservation Fund; $75K
- Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA
- Resilience Improvements Planning; $286K
- Joint Base San Antonio Camp Bullis, TX
- Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape; $5.1M
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For more information contact:
Peter Stangel, 404-915-2763; peter@usendowment.org
Read the full press release from the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities here or via this linked PDF.