Set amidst the sandhills of North Carolina, Fort Bragg is one of the largest
and busiest military installations in the world. The base, which is the home
of the Army's airborne and special operations forces, trains more soldiers
each year than any other military installation. The base plays a crucial
role in enabling rapid deployments around the world, and soldiers from its 82nd
Airborne Division must be ready to fight anyplace on the globe within eighteen
hours. Military readiness is dependent on training, and training is a perishable commodity.
As a result, Fort Bragg hosts extensive ground and aerial training exercises,
and up to one hundred thousand parachutes a year blossom in the skies above the
base. The success of these training maneuvers in meeting the military mission depends
on the availability of adequate land and realistic fighting conditions.
Sharing the base's airspace and terrain with these parachutists are some of the
last remaining red-cockaded woodpeckers (Picoides borealis), a federally protected
endangered species. Efforts to protect this eight-inch tall, black and white-striped
woodpecker had the potential for dramatically restricting the training opportunities
at the base with consequences for the installation's capacity for maintaining
military readiness. Instead, by taking an innovative approach to managing the
base's natural ecosystems and to working across boundaries geographic and institutional
Fort Bragg not only is helping ensure the survival of this endangered
bird, but also is enhancing the availability of realistic training for the nation's
troops. And in doing so, those involved have helped forge a new generation of
approaches for conserving biodiversity on military lands.
Biodiversity: What is It?
Biodiversity, most simply put, is the variety of life everything from genes, to
species, to entire ecosystems. Shorthand for "biological diversity," the concept is
most frequently applied to the array of plant and animal species that occur in a
particular place, or region. The notion, however, captures not only the diversity
of species in an area, but also the genetic variation within those species, as well
as the organization of these species into biological communities and the variety
of ecosystems across a landscape. Biodiversity conservation must take each of
these levels into consideration.
As might be expected of a term that attempts to address the dazzling variation
in life forms inhabiting the Earth, numerous definitions for biodiversity have been
proffered, with each emphasizing one aspect or another of the concept. Perhaps
the most widely used definition is contained in the international Convention on
Biological Diversity, the international undertaking that grew out of the 1992
"Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro. The convention defines biological diversity as:
. . . the variability among living organisms from all sources including, among other things, terrestrial,
marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are
part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. (CBD 1992).
Other definitions include a focus on the processes necessary for sustaining this
diversity. For instance, a report on biodiversity policy on U.S. federal lands (Keystone
Center 1991), defined biodiversity as: "the variety of life and its processes;
and it includes the variety of living organisms, the genetic differences among them,
and the communities and ecosystems in which they occur."
Looking across the various definitions that have been offered, four key concepts
emerge that address different aspects of biodiversity: variety, variability,
multiple biological levels, and sustaining processes.

Wetlands such as Alligator Lake at Marine
Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina,
are areas of high biological diversity
protected on military lands. (Photo: DOD
Legacy Program)
VARIETY. The number of different biological units of interest for example, the
number of distinct plants, animals, and microorganisms occurring within the
bounds of Fort Bragg, or the number of different ecosystems found across the
southeastern United States.
VARIABILITY. The differences both within and among those biological units for
example, the genetic variation within an individual colony of red-cockaded woodpeckers,
or the distinctions found across populations of this woodpecker over its
entire range.
MULTIPLE BIOLOGICAL LEVELS. The different levels of biological organization, including
genetic, species, and ecosystem levels. (Some would add landscape levels
to this list.) The levels of this hierarchy are occasionally more finely subdivided.
sustaining processes. The processes that sustain the variety and variability of
life forms at these different biological levels. This can include ecological processes,
such as the role of fire in maintaining longleaf pine ecosystems, and evolutionary
processes, such as the gene flow that results from the dispersal of young woodpeckers.
For purposes of this handbook, the following definition serves to encompass
all four of these key concepts: Biodiversity is the variety and variability of life on
Earth, from genes to ecosystems, together with the ecological and evolutionary
processes that sustain it.

Military lands often exhibit high levels of
biodiversity, sometimes in surprising places,
such as at the Brandywine Radio Site of
Andrews AFB, Maryland, located in a highly
urbanized area near Washington D.C.
(Photo: Douglas Ripley)
WHY SHOULD I CARE? THE VALUE OF BIODIVERSITY
Constituting the overall fabric of life on Earth, biodiversity naturally provides
people with many benefits, direct and indirect. While some of these can be represented
in dollars and cents, others cannot at least not yet. Nonetheless, there
is an increasing realization that biodiversity benefits not only our material wellbeing
and livelihoods, but also contributes to our security, health, and freedom
of choices and actions. It is no coincidence that many of the regions around the
world experiencing the greatest political and social unrest and requiring the attention
or intervention of U.S. military forces are those where biodiversity and
natural resources have been most severely depleted.
The value of biodiversity can be expressed from a variety of perspectives ranging
from scientific and economic to ethical and aesthetic. One framework for
understanding the value of biodiversity that has been gaining currency over the
past few years is termed ecosystem services (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
2005). Under this framework, biodiversity can be viewed as providing benefits
in several areas:

Wetlands such as Alligator Lake at Marine
Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina,
are areas of high biological diversity
protected on military lands. (Photo: DoD
Legacy Program)
PROVISIONING SERVICES include the role biodiversity plays in providing food, medicine,
fiber, and fuel. Most of the world's food supply, for example, derives from
just 20 species of plants, such as corn, rice, wheat, and potatoes. Our ability to
ensure the continued production of these crops, and to provide food to a growing
world population, depends largely on the periodic infusion of genetic material
from wild relatives or locally adapted strains. Similarly, about a quarter of all
prescription drugs are taken directly from plants or are chemically synthesized
versions of plant substances (Eisner and Beiring 1994). Fungi and microorganisms
have proven to be particularly potent sources for new drugs, and more than
half of prescription drugs are modeled on natural compounds. Indeed, most
breakthrough compounds, such as penicillin, originate from natural products.
Our ability to continue developing lifesaving drugs is closely tied to the existence
of a robust array of species.
REGULATING SERVICES include the role biodiversity plays in the modulation of diseases,
climate, floods, and water purification. We now understand that the outbreak
and regulation of many diseases is closely tied to changes in biodiversity
and integrity of ecosystems. As an example, the spread of Lyme disease, a bacterial
infection carried by ticks that, when untreated, causes a debilitating chronic
condition, has been linked to changes in wildlife populations in the eastern United
States. A combination of burgeoning deer populations and increasingly fragmented
forests have combined to increase the risk of Lyme infection in many areas
(LoGiudice et al. 2003). Disruption of such disease regulatory mechanisms is
a particular concern given the potential risk posed to troops deployed in regions
with deteriorating ecological conditions.
CULTURAL SERVICES include spiritual, aesthetic, recreation, and education values.
Biological heritage is embedded deeply in the social fabric of our society, and communities
historically have had close connections with the surrounding natural
landscape. A personal relationship with biodiversity often takes place through
outdoor recreation such as hunting, fishing, bird watching, or hiking. Many people
value the mere existence of species, for instance free-ranging grizzly bears or
great whales, even though they may never have the opportunity to see them in
person. Religious communities of different faiths view biodiversity as a reflection
of the hand of God, and many have embraced conservation as an expression of
reverence for the works of creation. The disappearance of natural habitats and
decreasing opportunities for outdoor recreation, however, is severing connections
between people and the natural world. Together with other cultural shifts, the resulting
phenomenon has been termed "nature-deficit disorder" and linked to a
variety of social problems (Louv 2005).
The value of biodiversity is also enshrined within the U.S. legal system. The
Endangered Species Act of 1973 constitutes the strongest expression of this respect
and value for biodiversity, noting that ". . . species of fish, wildlife, and plants
are of esthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational, and scientific value
to the Nation and its People." While the focus of the act is on preventing the loss
of species, the emphasis on ecosystems contained in the act's purpose statement
makes clear the connection to the broader concept of biodiversity:
to provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened
species depend may be conserved, to provide a program for the conservation of such endangered
species and threatened species . . .
Proceed to Next Section: Fort Bragg and the Vanishing Longleaf Pine Ecosystem