Fort Hood Range Revegetation

Project photo

Located on the northern edge of the Texas Hill Country, Fort Hood Military Reservation is characterized by rolling hills, shallow soils, woodlands, prairies and rocky streams. Yet, 60 years of training activities with ground-combat vehicles have disturbed its training land ecosystems, creating significant soil erosion and water quality issues.

The U.S. Department of the Army and U.S. Department of Defense are keenly interested in integrating sound stewardship practices with the requirements of their training missions. The Texas Water Resources Institute and Texas AgriLife Research Blackland Research and Extension Center, working through the Rangeland Revegetation Pilot Project and in close collaboration with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Fort Hood’s Integrated Training Land Management and Directorate of Public Works, seek to develop and implement best management practices (BMPs) and guides for restoration of the installation’s training lands ecosystems.

The military has used Fort Hood’s West Range, with more than 67,000 acres, as its primary training and maneuver area for two armored divisions. Restoration of this range serves to provide: 1) maintenance of quality training lands for military personnel, 2) maintenance and improvement of the natural resource base, and 3) protection of watersheds and improvements in water quality of supply reservoirs.

In addition to rangeland restoration, the project removes dairy manure byproducts from the Bosque River Watershed, addressing water quality concerns and assisting in meeting that impaired watershed’s Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) requirements.

Objectives

  • Provide maintenance for quality primary training areas, while improving water quality and reducing potential sedimentation by re-establishing vegetative cover
  • Supplement fertility of primary training area through the addition of composted dairy manure to enhance soil quality and promote vegetative growth
  • Develop scientifically based BMPs for sustained use of composted dairy manure revegetation, maintenance and restoration of rangeland processes in primary training areas
  • Provide U.S. Army standard operating procedures and specifications for new BMPs to help balance environmental and training needs at Fort Hood

Component

  • Research/Demonstration: Experimental studies and demonstrations have been initiated across a broad array of training areas at Fort Hood to evaluate vegetation impacts and water quality concerns associated with the use of composted dairy waste.

Accomplishments

  • Purchased, transported and applied approximately 15,000 tons of composted dairy manure from the impaired North Bosque River watershed onto 1,500 acres of research/demonstration plots (at rates between 10.5 to 63 tons/acre), helping meet the Bosque River watershed TMDL goals
  • Improved vegetation and nutrients on research/demonstration plots, reducing bare ground, controlling accelerated erosion rates and increasing soil fertility
  • Established that nutrients in dairy compost is not harming the water quality of protected watersheds within Fort Hood
  • Developed draft of Standard Operating Procedure for the U.S. Army: “Land Restoration on Military Training Areas: Dairy Compost as a Soil Amendment”
  • Awarded the 2006 Texas Environmental Excellence Award–
    Agriculture Division, presented by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
  • Continuing data collection for vegetation response, water quality impacts, soil fertility and erosion impacts
  • Analyzing the economic feasibility of recommended rates, application costs and integrated approaches of using dairy manure compost with other erosion control BMPs for erosion control and revegetation
  • The number one accomplishment of the project is improving training conditions for U.S. Army soldiers.

Collaborators

  • Texas Water Resources Institute, Texas A&M AgriLife
  • Blackland Research and Extension Center
  • Texas AgriLife Research
  • USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
  • Fort Hood III Corps and Garrison Command
  • Fort Hood Integrated Training Area Management
  • Fort Hood Directorate of Public Works

Funding Agency

  • USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service