Southeast Sentinel Landscapes
About
Sentinel landscapes are areas where conservation, working lands, and national defense interests converge. As part of the Sentinel Landscapes Partnership, designated sentinel landscapes are supported by the DOW's Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program, and complementary natural resource and conservation programs administered by the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and Forest Service (USFS) and the Department of Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Coordination among these programs provides military installations and other sentinel landscape partners with essential tools to protect irreplaceable training areas supporting our warfighters. The SERPPAS Sentinel Landscape work group, more specifically, includes designated landscapes where local partners are working collaboratively to strengthen military readiness, conserve natural resources, bolster agricultural and forestry economies, increase public access to outdoor recreation, and enhance landscape resilience across the Southeast. The SERPPAS Sentinel Landscapes work group connects current and future designated sentinel landscapes to address shared challenges, share learned lessons, and promote landscape-scale efforts across sentinel landscapes in the Southeast.
Strategic Objectives
- Coordinate with the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (OLDCC) on promoting Compatible Land Use Planning efforts in the Southeast.
- Accelerate conservation of working lands through advocacy and support of greater funding for existing programs that acquire conservation easements over working landscapes.
- Encourage implementation of landowner engagement and outreach efforts across the sentinel landscapes to promote greater awareness of state and federal programs for landowners that advance sustainable land use practices and promote greater land conservation around military installations and ranges.
- Expand coordination and collaboration between all SERPPAS work groups to better integrate actions that complement and support regional efforts across the sentinel landscapes on Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need (RSGCN), State Wildlife Action Plans, and wildlife corridors.
- Assist Sentinel Landscapes in the Southeast to assess their encroachment and hazard exposures and vulnerabilities and integrate resilience planning and adaptation into their landscape implementation.
- Use the SERPPAS network to share information, resources, and lessons learned from the designated Sentinel Landscapes to demonstrate the value and purpose of these partnerships supporting national defense.
Work Group Lead
Bruce Beard
Associate Director of PolicyTexas A&M Natural Resources Institute
bruce.beard@ag.tamu.edu
Bruce Beard was the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute’s Associate Director for Policy and led NRI’s Military Land Sustainability Program. Bruce brings more than 30 years of federal land management and natural resource policy experience to NRI and is a nationally recognized advocate for Sentinel Landscapes.
Bruce served within the Executive Office of the President at the Office of Management and Budget in three Administrations, where he was a principal advisor on federal land management and natural resource policy issues. He was the OMB Branch Chief for the Interior Branch responsible for coordination of budget, legislation and regulatory issues affecting the Department of the Interior. At the Department of Defense, he was instrumental in establishing the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program, which he directed, and helped to initiate the Sentinel Landscapes Partnership between the Departments of Agriculture, Defense and the Interior.
Bruce earned his Bachelor of Science in wildlife and fisheries from Texas A&M University, and a Master of Public Affairs in environmental policy from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He received the 2011 Outstanding Alumni Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M and the 2012 Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service at the Department of Defense.
