GRAFENWOEHR, Germany -- More than 100 representatives from Allied and partnered nations and training support personnel from Training Support Activity Europe attended the 2016 U.S. Army Europe's Sustainable Range Program (SRP) workshop, April 18, 2016, here.
This workshop focuses on providing a training platform that guarantees realistic training conditions that meet mission requirements while also implementing land management practices that help sustain biodiversity.
"For 30 years the U.S. Army Europe has had a sustainable range program in place. Through the years we have made a lot of progress, but there is still a lot to be done," said Nathaniel Whelan, Integrated Training Area Management program director. "What we have are these islands of high biodiversity within our premier training facility and we have to find ways to balance these out."
Not only do our Allies and partners notice how well we train in the Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels Training Areas, they also notice how well the land and its wide variety of species are taken care of.
"We have made a lot of mistakes over the years, but we have also learned a lot," said Whelan. With events like this, we are trying to share lessons learned and best practices with our partners."
"We are enlarging our training areas by 50 percent and I am here to learn different and better ways to develop our training areas for our units and for the future," said Maj. Arti Levanti, Estonia Land Forces.
Since the last workshop in 2014, representatives from the U.S. Army Europe and 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command have traveled to different countries to talk about some of the challenges they face related to the SRP. This event brings everyone together to see what progress has been made.
U.S. Army Europe is planning a similar conference next year in Italy with focus on Italy and U.S. type challenges and will be open to a regional audience.
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