In an environmental and military career spanning more than 40 years, Francis Coulters has seen a lot of things change, some things stay kind of the same and has had to learn many new things along the way.
He likes it that way, both on the job and off.
“I love learning new things, it is the variety, the spice of life,” he said. “As long as I keep learning, I’ll keep working at the U.S. Army Environmental Command. One thing that keeps me going about the job is there’s always something new to learn.”
Coulters, who is in his mid-60s, said his mother, who is in her 80s, is a role model for staying active and energetic.
“She’s still golfing 18 holes twice a week and swims twice a week,” he said. “She stays very active, which is something I try to do as well. She’s especially proud of the two hole-in-ones she’s had.”
Coulters, who now serves as an Environmental Support Manager for USAEC, leads efforts at Fort Buchanan, Fort Meade, Phoenix Military Reservation and Fort Belvoir and assists with the EPAS program. He also served in environmental roles with the Army National Guard and with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality in a regulatory role.
In addition, Coulters enlisted as a teenager in the Coast Guard and then later served on deployments in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay with the Army National Guard. Coulters said these experiences have helped him understand the broad issues required to manage environmental programs and better understand stakeholder issues.
He also said that during his tenure as an environmental manager, he’s seen many shifts in awareness of the importance of actively managing environmental programs at the Garrisons.
“My experience is that in the past sometimes you’d get pushback on environmental efforts, but I don’t think that’s the case anymore,” he said. “The garrison commanders are generally in favor of the cleanup work we do. They understand the complexity of the problems we are tasked with solving. They also understand that we have to work with the regulators to move the program forward. The restoration manages are more regularly informing the garrison commanders about what’s going on, so in many ways that’s continued to improve the overall relationships.”
Coulters cites his work as a regulator with the state of Mississippi with giving him a useful perspective on his role now.
“My time as a regulator helps me interact with regulators better, and that’s important,” he said. “I speak their language. I understand where their point of view comes from. In the past, these relationships were sometimes adversarial, depending on the regulators. But we’ve worked hard to improve the lines of communication,” he said. “Now we have quarterly cleanup partnering calls, which helps build good working relationships. We also involve the [U.S. Army] Corps of Engineers, regulators, contractors and USAEC to make sure we share information regularly.”
Coulters said that military installations play a significant role in preserving habitat, species and provide significant environmental stewardship – a critically important role that USAEC plays a key part in.
“One of the things I tell people is that our installations are havens for threatened and endangered species. When people ask me, I tell them that little tidbit,” he said. “The military has large land holdings, and many of the ways in which we use the land are actually beneficial to species like the gopher tortoise, or the red cockaded woodpeckers or butterflies. As an example, our firing ranges are conducive to creating an environment that these species and others can really thrive in. Many people don’t know that.”
Coulters said in addition to his busy work life, he stays active in his off time working with his son on restoring classic cars. He said the hobby started as a single father-son project that has grown into a passion for both he and his son.
“When I moved down here to Fort Sam Houston from Maryland, my son was finishing up high school, so he stayed there. We bought a 1950 Studebaker to work on together as a project for the two of us,” he said. “Then we started doing a 1950 CJ 5 Jeep, then picked up a Karmann Ghia, tore out the old VW engine and put a Subaru Forester engine in it. And have kept at it from there.”
He said the pair are working on a couple of Porsches now, and they spend a lot of time together since his son moved to Texas.
“He’s gotten really good at it. He’s really good at electrical work,” he said.
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