Tim Buchanan has spent decades in natural resources work at Fort Cavazos, formerly known as Fort Hood, and has seen both challenges and successes -- and more than a little change.
Through it all, he credits the successes in protecting endangered and threatened species -- while also creating the necessary land for the critical training mission at Fort Cavazos – to collaborative relationships with the garrison leadership and Soldiers, and with the regulatory officials who monitor endangered species.
“My heart is into this entirely, the need for developing a cooperative positive relationship with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” Buchanan said. “I just couldn’t see us being where we are today if our relationship were adversarial. Here at Fort Cavazos, that is absolutely not the case.”
Fort Hood has won acclaim for helping to grow the black-capped vireo population – the small songbird was listed as an endangered species, but through years of effort and attention, the bird has thrived and is no longer listed as endangered, a change credited largely to the installation’s work.
As Buchanan explains, it wasn’t necessarily a straight line to that improved status and population count for the vireo. He said that when the bird was first listed as endangered in the mid-1980s, every acre of breeding habitat was restricted, and training missions were kept away. “They essentially put up ‘Do Not Enter’ signs,” he said.
Working with USFWS, the natural resources team undertook a biological and habitat study to look deeper into the issues threatening the vireo population.
“We realized that we had black-capped vireos because we have military training,” he said of the study results. “Those periodic disturbances create vireo habitat – a surprise discovery to us. Every time military training occurred in the right areas, with the right soils, the regenerated vegetation became vireo habitat. That was the path we were on when I came here, and we’ve carried the baton. We have a very healthy vireo population now.”
Buchanan points out that the success with vireo population is not necessarily the recipe for other threatened or endangered species, and that each requires a full understanding of conditions and unique solutions.
“We also have the golden-cheeked warbler (an endangered bird species with a breeding range only in Texas) and that is on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to habitat,” Buchanan said. “With the warbler, there’s an added need to protect their habitat from destruction. Warbler habitat by nature is a closed canopy woodland.”
He said that means the training access to warbler habitat is limited to some trail activities through woodlands, so training is limited in these areas, but not eliminated.
“We have to protect the land from damage, while also fully recognizing that the military mission is primary here, you have to accept some of that is going to happen,” he said. “The amazing thing, it amazes me every year, is the land does heal quickly, it has its own capacity to heal. The ecosystems are in a constant state of evolution.”
Maintaining the balance is rewarding work, Buchanan said.
“This is one of the best jobs in the nation. When you think of how overwhelming managing lands for the military can be, it is so rewarding to have a job like this,” he said. “I recognize that my team and I have to be the continuity for the commanders that come through every two years or so, to protect that balance. It is so easy to get off track, and we try to stay the course. Even in the face of constant evolution, continuity is key.”
Buchanan, who grew up in the small town of Gholson just north of Fort Cavazos, began his career at the installation in 1991.
“As I get closer to retirement, it’s the people you work with that come to mind the most,” he said. “It is so important to get good working relationships established because that helps you with your goal of making the installation a better place than when you got here.”
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