Important Resources
- Natural Resource Management
DoDI 4715.03 - Natural Resources Conservation Program, This Department of Defense Instruction 4715.03, signed 14 February 2011, is a major update of DoD guidance established in 1996. It formalizes policies and procedures for the integrated management of natural resources on military lands, air, waters, coastal, and nearshore areas managed or controlled by the Department of Defense. The DoDI updates programming and budgeting priorities, and establishes new performance metrics to better evaluate how natural resources management can enable the military mission and ensure long-term health of installation ecosystems.
Related News:
Reforestation study shows trade-offs between water, carbon and timber 05/23/2013
More than 13,000 ships per year transit the Panama Canal each year. Each time a ship passes through, more than 55 million gallons of water are used. The advent of large “super” cargo ships has demanded expansion of the canal, leaving the authority to consider how meet increased demand for water. One proposed measure is the reforestation of the watershed.
Lost in translocation? How bird song could help save species 05/22/2013
Translocation – or moving animals to safer places – is a vital tool for saving species from extinction. Many factors influence the success of these new populations, including habitat quality, predators, capture and release techniques, the number and sex of individuals, and their genetic diversity. Now new research, the first of its kind suggests bird song could also be important.
Thinking 'big' may not be best approach to saving large-river fish 05/22/2013
Large-river specialist fishes -- from giant species like paddlefish and blue catfish, to tiny crystal darters and silver chub -- are in danger, but researchers say there is greater hope to save them if major tributaries become a focus of conservation efforts.
Pinpointing how nature's benefits link to human well-being 05/22/2013
What people take from nature -- water, food, timber, inspiration, relaxation -- are so abundant, it seems self-evident. Until you try to quantitatively understand how and to what extent they contribute to humans.
Top 10 new species of 2012 05/22/2013
An amazing glow-in-the-dark cockroach, a harp-shaped carnivorous sponge and the smallest vertebrate on Earth are just three of the newly discovered top 10 species selected by a global committee of taxonomists.
Two miniature spider species discovered in Giant Panda Sanctuaries of China 05/22/2013
Two tiny, bizarre shaped spider species have been discovered in the Sichuan province and Chongqing city of China. The two species belong to the understudied Mysmenidae family, which prove difficult to find due to their small size (under 2 mm in total) and their cryptic lifestyle habits.
Bee and wild flower biodiversity loss slows 05/22/2013
Declines in the biodiversity of pollinating insects and wild plants have slowed in recent years, according to a new study. Researchers found evidence of dramatic reductions in the diversity of species in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands between the 1950s and 1980s. But the picture brightened markedly after 1990, with a slowdown in local and national biodiversity losses among bees, hoverflies and wild plants.
Drought makes Borneo's trees flower at the same time 05/22/2013
Tropical plants flower at supra-annual irregular intervals. In addition, mass flowering is typical for the tropical forests in Borneo and elsewhere, where hundreds of different plant timber species from the Dipterocarpaceae family flower synchronously. This phenomenon is all the more puzzling because both temperature and day length are relatively constant all year round due to geographical proximity to the equator.
