Tuesday, August 16, 2005

MILITARY ENVIRONMENTALISM

Contrary to what you'd think, military exercise areas are havens for endangered animals:
Military exercises are boosting biodiversity, according to a study of land used for US training manoeuvres in Germany. Such land has more endangered species than nearby national parks.

The land is uncultivated, but also churned up by tank tracks and explosions. This creates habitat both for species that prefer pristine lands and those that require disturbed ground, explains ecologist Steven Warren of Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Military land can host more species than agricultural land, Warren told a meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Montreal. What's more, its biodiversity can also exceed that of natural parks, where species that need disturbance cannot get a foothold.
The same must hold true for battlefields. The Germans can claim to be enhancing France's biodiversity the next time they invade.

1 Comments:

Anonymous The_Real_JeffS said...

How true this is! The swampies really don't understand that DoD takes good care of their training areas......we aren't likely to get more, and there's always the pressure from growing population or activism (e.g., Vieques Island, in Puerto Rico).

5:36 PM  

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