Natural Resources: Lessons Learned Regarding Public Land Withdrawn for Military Use

GAO discussed Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Interior management of lands withdrawn for military use. GAO noted that: (1) military commanders at five withdrawn sites have changed some training activities due to environmental constraints; (2) military operations have hampered the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) resource management activities and caused BLM to assign a low priority to resource management on military lands; (3) the overall impact of military operations on resource conditions is unknown; and (4) opportunities exist for improving interagency cooperation and strengthening systems to monitor resource management activities.