Ecosystem Management
Ecosystem management is an integrated, science-based approach to the management of natural resources which attempts to create and maintain the health and diversity of ecosystems while allowing for sustainable use by humans of the goods and services they provide. For the Army, the maintenance of quality training areas depends on the maintenance of natural landscapes through conservation of the installation’s natural resources.
Ecosystem Management on Fort Liberty and Camp Mackall
Ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation on Fort Liberty and Camp Mackall are implemented at the natural community scale, with the identification of target communities based primarily on an analysis of pre-settlement vegetation and fire regimes on Fort Liberty. There are 23 distinct vegetative communities on this installation. Many techniques are employed to manage these natural communities, the most important of which are prescribed fire and forest thinning.
The uplands are dominated by an OLD GROWTH Pine Scrub Oak Sandhill community which is a fire-maintained system with a wiregrass understory. →
The federally listed and rare species that occur on Fort Liberty are dependent on the restoration and maintenance of natural communities associated with the longleaf pine-wiregrass ecosystem; and therefore, habitat management actions that target these species are consistent with Fort Liberty’s ecosystem management strategy. Endangered and rare species serve as important indicators of overall ecosystem health.
