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Species at Risk on  DOD Installations

Species at Risk on DOD Installations > Nationwide Assessment

A total of 523 species at risk are found on the 729 DOD installations analyzed in this report. In terms of federal and conservation status, 47 are federal candidates, 136 are critically imperiled (G1/T1) and 340 are imperiled (G2/T2) (Figure 1). The majority of species at risk on military lands are vascular plants (352), followed by invertebrate animals (107) and vertebrate animals (64) (Figure 2). This proportion of at-risk species by group is similar to patterns of species imperilment found on all U.S. lands (Master et al. 2000).





Figure 1: % of Species
at Risk by Status


Figure 2: % of Species
at Risk by Species Group

Geographic patterns of species at risk on military lands follow nationwide patterns of species imperilment found on all U.S. lands (Chaplin et al. 2000), with particularly high numbers of at-risk species occurring on installations in Hawaii, central and southern California, southern New Mexico, and parts of Florida (Figure 3a). Other installations with high numbers of species at risk occur in portions of the southeastern United States, including Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina.

An analysis of raw numbers of species at risk on DOD installations tends to skew results towards large installations because, all other factors being equal, the likelihood of species presence on large installations is higher than on small installations. We therefore conducted an analysis of species at risk density (number of species per 100 square miles) on DOD installations. Geographic patterns of at-risk density, shown in Figure 3b, further emphasize the importance of conservation efforts on installations in Hawaii, California and Florida. Large installations in the Southwest, in contrast, diminish in importance when evaluated from a species density perspective, while other installations in the Pacific Northwest (Camp Adair Military Reservation in Oregon), the Southeast (Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina), the Northeast (McGuire Air Defense in New Jersey) and the Mid-Atlantic (U.S. Naval Supply Center in Virginia) are shown to contain significant species densities.


Figure 3a
Number of Species at Risk
on DOD Installations


Figure 3b
Density of Species at Risk
on DOD Installations

View > Military Services



PDF file (77 KB)

Report prepared for:

 U.S. Department of Defense

 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

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