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Strong leadership drives effective programs in complex environment at WSMR

By Thomas MilliganJune 20, 2023

The success of the ACUB and REPI programs at White Sands Missile Range is a result of Mr. Brian Knight's excellent leadership and the installation's commitment to stakeholder involvement. Under Mr. Knight’s leadership, WSMR partnered...
1 / 6 Show Caption + Hide Caption – The success of the ACUB and REPI programs at White Sands Missile Range is a result of Mr. Brian Knight's excellent leadership and the installation's commitment to stakeholder involvement. Under Mr. Knight’s leadership, WSMR partnered with the New Mexico Land Conservancy, a non-profit land trust, to secure conservation easements in areas adjacent to WSMR where potential incompatible development could cause serious impacts to mission. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Armendaris Ranch is located in Priority Areas 5 and 6 of the WSMR ACUB plan. The total acreage of this conservation easement is 361,279 acres. This is the Army's single largest cooperative agreement of its kind and took several years to develop.
2 / 6 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Armendaris Ranch is located in Priority Areas 5 and 6 of the WSMR ACUB plan. The total acreage of this conservation easement is 361,279 acres. This is the Army's single largest cooperative agreement of its kind and took several years to develop. (Photo Credit: US Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Call-up Areas are priorities for limiting incompatible development. Conservation easements promote agricultural business while providing unpopulated lands for aircraft to approach White Sands Missile Range while conducting military operations.
3 / 6 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Call-up Areas are priorities for limiting incompatible development. Conservation easements promote agricultural business while providing unpopulated lands for aircraft to approach White Sands Missile Range while conducting military operations. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Grasslands provide wide open spaces suitable for grazing livestock and military readiness. These spaces retain long-standing agricultural traditions with high economic value while protecting military readiness capability for the Army, Air Force,...
4 / 6 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Grasslands provide wide open spaces suitable for grazing livestock and military readiness. These spaces retain long-standing agricultural traditions with high economic value while protecting military readiness capability for the Army, Air Force, and the Navy. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Developing conservation easements through a partnership is a win-win investment for Department of Defense and private landowners. It sustains military activities while conserving agricultural practices.
5 / 6 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Developing conservation easements through a partnership is a win-win investment for Department of Defense and private landowners. It sustains military activities while conserving agricultural practices. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
The Army Compatible  Use Buffer program protects charismatic species such as the desert bighorn sheep.
6 / 6 Show Caption + Hide Caption – The Army Compatible Use Buffer program protects charismatic species such as the desert bighorn sheep. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

The Army Compatible Use Buffer program, long considered one of the most effective programs and models for balancing environmental stewardship and vital training, is an important tool across the U.S. Army.

At White Sands Missile Range, Brian Knight, chief of the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division, has won acclaim for effective implementation of an ACUB program as part of a series of steps to establish and protect the necessary buffers between training grounds and off-site development. Knight is credited with managing the complex relationships, varied jurisdictions, private and public entities that come with sustaining the vital training at WSMR and providing top-quality environmental stewardship.

“As leader at WSMR, Brian Knight has strengthened military readiness, long-term mission sustainability and resilience. He planned and executed conservation easements in areas surrounding WSMR that are most vulnerable to encroachment from incompatible development,” said Garrison Commander Col. David A. Mitchell. “It takes a strong leader to lead the massive program at WSMR, to create the partnerships and the win-win relationships. He’s done a remarkable job.”

WSMR encompasses 2.2 million-acres and 8,500 miles of DoD restricted airspace and military training routes, across jurisdictions of five New Mexico counties. WSMR is the DoD largest research, development, test, and evaluation range. WSMR hosts the military’s remote pilot aircraft training, 70% of the F-22 and F-16 pilot training and most training for nearby Holloman Air Force Base.

Close management is required to preserve the necessary training environment both within the installation and on adjacent lands. Conservation easements with landowners prevented incompatible development such as energy transmission lines, wind turbines, radio frequency, and urban development -- all potential challenges to maintaining existing aerial approaches into WSMR on the northern and western boundaries.

Tall structures such as windmills and energy distribution lines, for example, must be limited because those structures eliminate the capability for low-altitude flights into the installation and can emit radio frequencies that disrupt military radar systems.

ACUB is a tool to protect the access and availability of lands and the capabilities that those lands provide. Installations collaborate with partners to identify mutual land conservation objectives. The partners purchase easements or fee-simple property acquisitions from willing landowners within areas determined to be a priority for protection. The partner, not the Army or even DoD, holds the deeded interest in the property.

Another tool Knight is credited with effectively implementing at WSMR is the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration program, of which ACUB is a component. REPI is designed to cultivate projects that conserve lands at a greater scale, test promising means to finance land protection and harness the creativity of the private sector and market-base approaches above and beyond each installations’ ACUB program

“Partnerships with private conservation groups are a win-win because there is cost sharing to acquiring easements or other interests in land that promote compatible land use and natural habitat conservation off an installation,” said Mitchell.

Knight led efforts to garner more than $27 million in funding support for ACUB and REPI programs at WSMR and won $5.1 through a REPI competitive grant process.

At WSMR under Knight’s leadership, a total of 328,409 acres in Fiscal Years 2021 and 2022 were protected, including the 315,709-acre conservation easement with the Armendaris Ranch, the largest conservation easement in ACUB and REPI history, which closed in March 2022. The total acres protected with conservation easements around WSMR increased to 361,279 total acres by the end of FY22.

A key component of an effective ACUB is the creation of a Joint Land Use Study, which is a planning process that works to help community land use planners better understand and incorporate military needs into their land development standards and processes. The goal of the JLUS is to better understand and incorporate military needs and impacts into local planning programs and is another means to address incompatible development around the installation.

Knight was a leader and visionary in building relationships with local area communities to formulate a JLUS, and worked closely with local city municipalities, federal agencies, state and county governments and congressional staff who represent the areas surrounding WSMR.