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Natural Resources Management
About
The DOW works with federal, state, and other partners to manage 27 million acres of military lands, ensuring military readiness, sustainable natural resource management, and environmental protection are achieved. Healthy, natural landscapes provide realistic training environments for warfighters while preserving critical lands, plants, animals, air, and water. These efforts contribute to resilient, connected landscapes beyond installation boundaries, benefiting both military readiness and broader conservation goals. The SERPPAS Natural Resources Management work group connects DOW and partners to drive innovative strategies that increase flexibility for addressing impacts on military missions while achieving complimentary natural resource management goals at a regional scale.
Strategic Objectives
- Identify opportunities to streamline regulatory compliance, enhance military mission readiness, and accelerate partner plans (e.g. State Wildlife Action Plans, Installation Integrated Natural Resources Management Plans (INRMPs)) through analysis and application of federal environmental laws including the Sikes Act, Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
- Identify funding opportunities that will advance the implementation of programs that provide direct benefits to military installations and adjacent landscapes by conserving, managing, and supporting the recovery of imperiled species. This could include making targeted investments in focal species, habitats or ecosystems and developing habitat and multi-species crediting strategies that demonstrate return and incentivize future investment.
- Identify opportunities to proactively conserve at-risk species populations or habitats that are important to SERPPAS in a manner that would preclude the need to federally list a species (e.g. conservation agreements).
- Develop recommendations to create or improve functional corridors for wildlife and landscape resilience that support larger conservation goals and prioritize military encroachment concerns using existing geospatial information and emerging tools, such as the SERPPAS Good Map and the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) Blueprint.
- Identify opportunities to strengthen sustainable forest and natural resource markets that incentivize private land stewardship, enhance ecosystem and habitat resilience, and maintain open space critical to military readiness.
Work Group Lead
Dr. Rebecca Harrison (Lead)
At-Risk Species CoordinatorU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
470-925-5310| rebecca_harrison@fws.gov
Becky Harrison is the at-risk species coordinator for the Southeast region with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She has 25 years of experience in species conservation and adaptative management and has worked within diverse partner groups to create unified frameworks for strategic conservation planning and delivery.
She has degrees in Zoology and Wildlife Biology from Michigan State University (B.Sc.), Utah State University (M.Sc.) and North Carolina State University (PhD). Her post-doctoral work at University of Georgia was supported through a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. This research used the monarch butterfly as a model system of migration to investigate how animal movement patterns are influenced by infectious disease.
Becky joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2011 and has worked across programs including the South Atlantic Inventory & Monitoring Network, the National Wildlife Refuge System, Ecological Services, and Partners in Flight on collaborative conservation management projects across taxa including pollinators, red wolves, sea turtles, and migratory birds. She also serves as the species recovery lead for the endangered St. Francis satyr butterfly at Fort Bragg. She has collaborated with U.S. Army personnel, natural resource managers, and researchers on conservation management issues there since 2003. Her commitment to negotiating critical resource management decisions has recognized with several awards including the Secretary of the Interior’s Commendation award in 2017.
Request to Join Work Group
Resources
Documents
Websites
Department of War Natural Resources Program
America's Longleaf Restoration Initiative
Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA)
USFWS Southeast's At-Risk Species Finder
Southeast Regional Plants and Animals: Greatest Conservation Needs
Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS)
SERPPAS ARTE Work Group Focal Species List - This list has been compiled by the SERPPAS At-risk, Threatened and Endangered Species work group. It is intended to help partners understand and identify possible overlapping at-risk species priorities in the SERPPAS region. This list is purely informational and does not inherently indicate action.
News
Two New Sentinel Landscapes Designated in Mississippi and Colorado
6/29/26
The Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service helps ensure that wildlife habitat remains healthy and resilient in two newly designated Sentinel Landscapes in Mississippi and Colorado.
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NFWF Awards $20 Million in Grants to Restore Longleaf Pine Habitat across the Southeast
6/17/26
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced $20 million in grants for 25 projects through the Longleaf Landscape Stewardship Fund aimed at restoring and protecting longleaf pine forests across nine Southeastern states, including Texas. Combined with matching funds, the effort will generate $38.6 million in total conservation investment. The projects will restore more than 380,000 acres of habitat, including planting longleaf pine seedlings, expanding prescribed burns, and helping private landowners manage their forests.
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Army Reserve, Conservation Partners Safeguard Endangered Gopher Tortoise During Operation Sentinel Justice
6/15/26
A unique partnership between the U.S. Army Reserve, The Nature Conservancy, and the Camp Shelby Environmental Office is ensuring that military readiness and environmental stewardship advance side by side. Their collaborative efforts focus on protecting one of the Southeast’s keystone species, the Gopher Tortoise, through strategic planning, habitat management, scientific conservation initiatives, and soldier education.
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Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Threatened Species Status With Section 4(d) Rule for Southern Hognose Snake
6/8/26
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reopening the public comment period on its August 29, 2025, proposal to list the southern hognose snake as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. This reopening allows for a public hearing and gives stakeholders another opportunity to provide input, with all previously submitted comments still being considered in the final decision.
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42 Eastern indigo snakes released across Florida and Alabama in continued species recovery effort
6/4/26
The Central Florida Zoo’s Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation recently released 42 juvenile eastern indigo snakes, 21 in Florida’s Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve and 21 in Alabama’s Conecuh National Forest, as part of an ongoing effort to restore the federally threatened species to its historic range.
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North American Wetlands Conservation
6/1/26
The Department of the Interior announced $44.79 million in funding for the North America Wetlands Conservation Act, approved by the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission. This funding enables USFWS and its partners to conserve, restore, or enhance 185,203 acres of vital wetland and upland habitat for migratory birds across the country.
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Events & Webinars
- Georgia Association of Conservation Districts (GACD) Annual Meeting
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August 23 - 25, 2026
Young Harris, GA - Restore America's Estuaries 2026 Coastal & Estuarine Summit
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September 22 - 25, 2026
San Francisco, CA - 13th U.S. Symposium on Harmful Algae
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October 25 - 29, 2026
Cedar Rapids, IA - 80th Annual SEAFWA Conference
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October 26 - 30, 2026
Nashville, TN - 16th Biennial Longleaf Conference
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October 27 - 30, 2026
Williamsburg, VA
SERPPAS Meetings
August 2026
- Fall 2026 SERPPAS Steering Committee Meeting
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August 19 - 20, 2026
Atlanta, GA



