The Sentinel Landscapes Partnership: Defense, agriculture, and conservation communities working together to achieve landscape conservation and resilience goals
The Sentinel Landscapes Partnership is a coalition of federal agencies, state and local governments, and non-governmental organizations that work with willing landowners and land managers to advance sustainable land use practices around military installations and ranges. Founded in 2013, the partnership aligns the objectives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Defense, Department of the Interior, and Federal Emergency Management Agency to strengthen military readiness, conserve natural resources, bolster agricultural and forestry economies, increase public access to outdoor recreation, and enhance landscape resilience.
What is a Sentinel Landscape?
Natural open space and sustainably managed working lands used for farming, ranching, and forestry provide vital ecological and recreational services and support the nation’s economy through agriculture and forestry. These lands also provide critical buffers for military installations and ranges by maintaining land use that is compatible with their testing and training missions.
Sentinel landscapes are areas where conservation, working lands, and national defense interests converge. They are anchored by at least one high-value military installation or range and contain high priority lands for USDA, DOD, and DOI. Critically, they encompass agricultural and/or forestry lands and are the appropriate size and scale needed to address the ecological restoration objectives defined for each landscape.
The goals and objectives of each sentinel landscape are established by local partnerships that may include federal, state, and local government agencies, tribal governments, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions that represent relevant working lands, conservation, recreation, and landowner interests.
Resources
Explore the content at the Sentinel Landscapes website for useful reports, webinars, and other background materials. For additional resources on individual sentinel landscapes, visit each landscape’s webpage located under the “Landscapes” tab.
