Scott Kirsch, PI David Havlick, Co-PI University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Geography
Project Summary This study focuses on the conversion of U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) lands to national wildlife refuges. Since 1988, the DOD has reclassified twenty-one bases on more than 1.1 million acres to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for management as national wildlife refuges. Closures scheduled for 2005 target as many as 25 percent of the remaining DOD bases, or one hundred more large sites. This research will examine such conversions with two key questions in mind: How have these landscapes been produced, and how do they then function as public lands? This study first approaches these by asking how such sites have been cast politically, scientifically, and narratively to effect their conversion to national wildlife refuges. Second, it considers how these spaces work as new national wildlife refuges, as former military lands, and as examples of ecological militarization, or the view that military production and environmental protection are compatible. The research will apply grounded theory and content analysis to two main sources: documents and reports produced during the base closure and conversion process, and approximately thirty interviews conducted during site visits in Colorado and Indiana, as well as at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Intellectual Merit: This study brings a new approach to inquiries of environmental politics and management of public lands in the United States, and is unique in its focus on wildlife refuges created from military base closures. By documenting how nature, society, and technology are integrated through these conversions, the project contributes important insights to a phenomenon that is likely to increase in frequency in the future. The researchers have already demonstrated expertise in analyzing complex issues on federal lands, and have academic, conservation-oriented, and popular publications on related topics.
Broader Impacts: This project provides key information to federal land managers and environmental regulators, state and county health officials, and refuge visitors. The research brings empirical information to bear upon the processes of conversion, particularly at two case sites, and documents the scope of military-to-wildlife conversions at a national scale. International conservation efforts can also benefit from the lessons of military-to-wildlife conversions, as ecological and social priorities come together in new ways at these sites. Military closures often generate tremendous public interest and concern - this research will add to public understanding of some of the practices that occur at military sites, how these are addressed or remedied, and how these may or may not be compatible with new uses as public wildlife refuges. The project will provide graduate training in geography and findings will be published in articles and book form.
