Scientists Pine for Military Ranges

ByABC News
June 12, 2001, 11:10 AM

June 7 -- If ecologist Neil West needs a really pristine site to do a little research, hes likely to pass up a national park or wildlife refuge in favor of a military bombing range.

Thats because our national parks are being loved to death by hordes of visitors who have reshaped the local environment just by being there. But not many folks are likely to stray into an area where bombs could fall from the sky.

Its a surprising situation: Many of the nations most unspoiled areas consist of buffers around some of our dirtiest installations, including weapons research facilities and military staging areas. Anyone who ventures into the buffer is likely to meet an unfriendly, and heavily armed, host.

In many cases, only a tiny fraction of the land is used for its primary purpose, and that area is surrounded by hundreds of square miles of protected buffer that has remained essentially unchanged for decades.

West, a professor of rangeland resources at Utah State University in Logan, has lusted after those buffers for many years.

Some of these lands might be the last refuge for many critters, says West.

A Possible Opening

But heres the rub: They may be among our most pristine areas, but they are also among the least understood. Thats because the ground rules that kept us common folk out of those buffers also kept most scientists out.

That, however, may be changing. Scientists may be facing a windfall in unspoiled territory where they can look for endangered critters and conduct research in areas that havent been pulverized by off-road vehicles. The Department of Defense and other government agencies that have not always been eager to open their gates are beginning to sing a new tune, West says.

Its all related to how politics has changed since the end of the Cold War, he says. We used to let these outfits do pretty well what they wanted because back in the Cold War era, we would pull out all the stops to stay ahead of the Reds.