"Back at the Gap" Major General Frank H. Smoker, Jr. (USAF, Retired) Environment a priority at Gap   45th in a series Two years ago, Lt. Col. Chris Cleaver, public affairs officer for the Gap, said, “Fort Indiantown Gap is proactive in caring for the environment”. That statement remains true today, considering the vast amount of work that goes on to ensure the post is environmentally compliant. While doing research for this article, I was amazed at the complexity and wide scope of the environmental actions at the Gap. I am indebted to Rita Meneses, cultural-resources manager of the Environmental Division, for background material she furnished me and to Cleaver for articles he wrote concerning the environmental issues. In addition to being an important military training area for thousands of soldiers and airmen, the Gap also abounds with birds, bugs, snakes, turtles, deer, and bears, and foremost, the rare eastern Regal Fritillary butterflies (a bizarre comparison but nevertheless true). When the National Guard took over the post in October 1998, it built a list of 42 different programs and projects considered to be essential for growth and modernization. These actions required an Environmental Impact Statement. Balancing the training needs of soldiers and airmen with those of the area’s wildlife presented a challenge that led the Guard to create the environmental division to administer this important conservation program. The active Army had completed several important environmental projects prior to its inactivation, and John Fronko, who at that time specialized in environmental compliance, said, “We relished the opportunity to take it to the next level”. The environmentalists formed a small team and from that nucleus, the staff was more than doubled. Under the direction of Carl Magagna, Environmental Program Manager, the staff wrote and implemented a detailed 238-page Integrated Natural Resource Plan. This document inventoried natural resources, prescribed management practices, evaluated and rotated training areas to lessen negative environmental impacts, upgraded ranges, began a series of proactive research programs to document flora and fauna on the post’s 17,400 acres and commenced the two-year EIS. To implement this vast undertaking, 18 specialists were organized into four management sections: environmental compliance, solid waste, resource protection and forestry. These key members included a forester, wildlife biologist, forest-research technician, cultural-resource manager, geographic-information systems manager, compliance specialist, air/water quality specialist, hazardous-waste manager, fuel-tank specialist and a technical support specialist. The environmental staff branched out even further when it was realized that more assistance was required to implement the planned projects. Contracts were negotiated with Pennsylvania State University, the Nature Conservancy and the United States Geological Survey to study and monitor environmental projects. With the assistance of Pennsylvania State University’s Wildlife Unit, Joseph Hovis, the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs wildlife specialist, worked with the Pennsylvania Game Commission to trap and tag black bears, and capture and attach radio telemetry on white–tailed deer found on the installation. He also worked with Penn State scientists completing a detailed macro-invertebrate and fish survey on the Gap’s two trout streams. In addition to these projects, with the assistance of summer biology interns, the wildlife division established more than 150 songbird survey points and herpetological surveys – snake, turtle and vernal pool locations, which are important amphibian breeding areas. Fieldwork also commenced on one of the largest terrestrial insect surveys in Pennsylvania. Magagna said, “The environmental programs we implemented require a buy-in from the entire National Guard team.” The most difficult buy-in was the setting aside of 250 acres of prime training land for the butterfly habitat. Fort Indiantown Gap is home to the last known colony of the Regal Fritillary east of the Mississippi. The National Guard and the Nature Conservancy are committed to maintain this limited habitat for these rare butterflies. Regal Fritillaries thrive in grasslands and need to survive by living in clearings created by lightning or humans. Today, yellow signs delineate grassland areas that are off limits to mechanized training, even though it was military training that originally created this rare habitat crucial to this variety of butterfly. Trying to figure out what kind of field will best support the regals is one of the conservancy’s tasks. It was determined that regal caterpillars need the arrowleaf violets found at the Gap. The adult butterflies need a variety of nectar plants, including the milkweed. The Nature Conservancy continues to monitor the butterfly’s progress year-round. Ensuring that clean water flows throughout the installation is another important priority. Tracked vehicles such as the M1 Abrams tank, and soon the Stryker vehicle, travel throughout the Gap and it is necessary to keep up with the maintenance of these tank trails because the steep terrain and shale soil is susceptible to erosion and water runoff. To protect waterways and to enhance training, there has been a continual multi-year program in place by the engineers to enhance tank trails, upgrade culverts, build stream crossings and construct sedimentation holding ponds. Unfortunately, this program could not avert the fury of Hurricane Ivan when this storm passed through the Gap in 2004. The immense deluge of water runoff extensively damaged roads and tank trails, polluting nearby streams, resulting in the repair cost of $2,334,278. With leadership provided by the Department’s forester Shannon Henry, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation was empowered to create forested buffers along numerous small streams. Also, two USGS stream monitoring devices stand as sentries monitoring water quality 24-hours a day, seven-days a week. “Our water quality is really remarkable, especially when one compares data from our streams to that outside our boundaries,” says Hovis. The Gap’s environmental efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 2001, Governor Mark Schweiker presented the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs the Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence in recognition of the outstanding professionalism in its environmental management program. This was the first time this award was presented to a state agency. The environmental staff at the Gap achieved a 95 percent reduction in toxic air emissions. Annual hazardous-waste generation at the training center was reduced by 30,000 pounds, and the dramatic increase in the output of recycled materials generated revenue for the installation. The Guard’s environmental program was recognized as the best in the nation in March 2004, when it received the national–level Army National Guard Environmental Program's Stewardship Award for 2003-2004. Pennsylvania’s program achieved an overall score of 91 percent. No other state environmental program scored above 89 percent and the average across the entire Army National Guard was 74.26 percent. On April 7, the Environmental Protection Agency for the first time named a Defense Department agency as a recipient of its Clean Air Excellence Award when the Pennsylvania Army National Guard was honored at a ceremony in Washington. The bottom line is - Fort Indiantown Gap National Guard Training Center provides a cleaner and safer sustainable training environment for soldiers while finding efficiencies leading to more cost effective operations for the taxpayer. We can be thankful that we have this group of outstanding, dedicated professionals who are monitoring the environmental resources on a daily basis to ensure the environment is safe for all our troops who train at the Gap. Published in the Wednesday, July 27, 2005 edition of the Lebanon Daily News © 2005 Frank H. Smoker, Jr. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of the author. Go "Back at the Gap" Index