Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program on the Land Conservation Assistance Network

Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program
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last updated: March 2014
The Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program supports cost-sharing partnerships authorized by Congress (10 U.S.C. § 2684a), between the military Services, private conservation groups, and state and local governments to protect military test and training capabilities and conserve land. These win-win partnerships acquire easements or other interests in land from willing sellers to preserve compatible land uses and sustain wildlife habitat near installations and ranges where the military operates, tests, and trains. The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) created REPI to organize and administer congressional funding for authorized projects. OSD provides Department of Defense (DoD) policies and standards, stakeholder engagement and regional partnerships, and integration of various tools to enhance mission-supportive partnerships. These collective REPI efforts are part of the Department’s larger Sustainable Ranges Initiative. The Sustainable Ranges Initiative ensures that the military continues to effectively test and train now and into the future. REPI is DoD’s core effort aimed at using the authority provided by Congress to protect military readiness by preventing incompatible development and preserving habitat through buffer projects, supportive education, engagement, and regional planning.

DoD is a partner in two multi-state, multi-agency partnerships in rapidly growing areas of the United States with significant DoD land presence: the Southeast and Southwest.

The Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability (SERPPAS) brings together state environmental and natural resource officials from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi with federal agencies including DoD. SERPPAS works to encourage compatible resource-use decisions and improve coordination by leveraging its members’ problem-solving and compatible land use efforts to the benefit of regional planning, conservation, economic development, and sustainability.

Ongoing projects aimed at restoring native longleaf pine forests have been a particular SERPPAS focus. A number of installations in the Southeast are filling in the gaps of the longleaf pine ecosystem and helping ease restrictions on the full suite of testing, training, and operations. With the completion of the Range-Wide Conservation Plan for Longleaf Pine in 2009, SERPPAS will move into the next phase of sustaining functional, viable longleaf pine ecosystems that provide ecological, economic and social values to multiple stakeholders.

The Western Regional Partnership (WRP) brings together DoD, federal, and tribal entities with state agencies from Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah to advance shared strategic planning, land management, and policy goals. WRP committees focus on some of the Western region’s key and emerging issues, including sustainable land use, wildlife corridors, compatible energy development, and border management.

These issues present numerous challenges for DoD installations. For instance, restricted training airspace in the Mojave Desert in California faces potential impacts to readiness from growing development and possible energy transmission corridors that could affect supersonic flights from Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake and Edwards Air Force Base. Working in a regional partnership will help study and address these land use issues in a manner beneficial to all stakeholders, including other federal landholders such as the Bureau of Land Management.

Contact REPI

Listed in:
Federal Incentives

Contact Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program
U.S. Department of Defense
1400 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1400
Phone: 703-571-3343

Service Area
National Program

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