I stand on a ridge and look out over a beautiful vista, a long view of unending grasses. The sun is high today and the sky clear. A mountain range sits behind me. I can hear gunshots in the distance. Prairie dogs pop up out of holes. A tank drives along a trail in the distance reminding me of the masses of soldiers that have trained here, including my own father. This piece of land was converted into the militarized training landscape that it is today in 1942, as the U.S. entered World War II. On our way back to the office buildings, my tour guide and I stop at the side of the trail to inspect a sign. It alerts us to the depleted uranium nearby from weapons tested in the 1960’s.
• • •
Little prairies appear in the gaps between the oak trees in a Wisconsin forest. As we drive through the forest, I am told these fields are a paradise of rare and endangered butterflies. The butterflies don’t seem to mind the ammunition being shot on a regular basis. It is overcast and I don’t see any winged beauties out today. The environmental manager I am here to see tells me a story about his father who didn’t understand the environmental work that his son does. He responded life is like Jenga and the species are the pieces. Eventually, you pull one out and it falls. “We’re not just trying to protect these individual species. We’re trying to protect people.”
• • •
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services releases a groundbreaking report of the global state of biodiversity. They report alarming rates of extinction. Around a million species are at risk of extinction. Under U.S. law, these species are called “endangered” and “threatened”. There is a rallying cry to protect the areas where these species are still found. These are the environmental problems I have dedicated my career to help solve not realizing it would take me such militarized space.
• • •
I find myself in a pine forest. This one was just recently burned. The forester I am touring with today is proud to show me how much of this landscape they have burned, over 200,000 acres every year. Fire is the natural order of the forest. We look at a tree with sap running down the side. Inside will be a nest of an endangered bird that has found a welcoming home at this installation. The populations have far exceeded recovery goals with at least 500 breeding pairs on this single piece of land. Everyone I meet here tells me that the birds like the same kind of forest as the soldiers. I like the forest too. I kayaked through part of the river here only a few hours before. While on the water, I felt a peace in this militarized place.
• • •
New recruits are scattered across the lawn, fresh faces that are awaiting transformation into soldiers. Of the 100,000 Army recruits each year, about 50% of them will come here for basic training. I pass them standing there waiting for orders. I try not to think about how this place feeds the destruction of other places far from where I am. I try not think about the real-world use of the weapons they hold. Lives ruined and lives taken. I continue to my meeting to discuss environmental victories of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). As I am standing in a hallway ready to leave, an unexpected conversation starts about how simulations don’t offer realistic training. These men describe a training scenario where recruits are shot at and told to crawl towards the guns to disable them. They laugh. “Those kids have a whole different appreciation for what they’re capable of after experiencing that.”
• • •
In a small office large maps on the wall show the contours of this installation viewed from above. I eat a pop tart and talk freely with a natural resource manager who sees the world a lot like I do. She reveals the DoD cares about the climate crisis. It is a security problem after all. After lunch, a soldier tells me that it is his job to kill the bad guys. Turtles shouldn’t get in the way of training a soldier or else he might die. The enemy needs to die. Not us.
• • •
In 2017, the DoD’s Natural Resources Program reports spending over $1.32 million on species conservation efforts between 1991 and 2016. They report hosting and protecting about 425 federally listed threatened and endangered species on DoD land: the pretty purple flower growing in tank tracks and nowhere else in the world, several rare butterflies living in a prairie while explosives are shot nearby, and endangered woodpeckers roosting in trees above soldiers digging foxholes. These are the species that don’t fit in the larger world our society has created. But they thrive in these places. These military landscapes.
*Cover image: Fort McCoy, WI. Photo by author.
[*Cover image description: A collection of pine trees with grass and wildflowers carpeting the ground sit behind a chain-link fence with barbed wire on top. On the fence there is a sign that says WARNING / RESTRICTED AREA / KEEP OUT.]