CAMP BULLIS SENTINEL LANDSCAPE CONSORTIUM

​Land Program Updates - Summer 2022

August 2022

While the soil is thirsty, the Land Program continues to saturate the region with educational resources and partnership-building. In the first half of the year, HCA engaged hundreds of landowners through a number of stewardship workshops on various issues, from regenerative grazing to land conservation.

Since 2021, HCA has led the Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape (CBSL) Partnership, a new collaborative to enhance natural resource conservation, military readiness, and agricultural productivity in a multi-county area around Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis. We were so excited to have the CBSL awarded in February, making us one of only ten nationally recognized Sentinel Landscapes in the country and the very first in Texas!

Now we’re getting to work bringing new funding to Texas to support private land stewardship and conservation, which will provide rippling benefits for private lands, Hill Country communities, Camp Bullis, and future generations.

Daniel Oppenheimer of the Hill Country Alliance looks over berms and native grasses during a tour of Camp Bullis, which was recently designated a Sentinel Landscape. The designation, part of a federal initiative called the Sentinel Landscape Partnership, will facilitate significant financial resources to protect military readiness and advance conservation and agricultural productivity. Robin Jerstad /Contributor

Federal Recognition To Advance Conservation And Military Readiness Around Camp Bullis

Elena Bruess
March 14, 2022

​​On the west side of Camp Bullis, at the edge of the Dominion neighborhood, Rustin Tabor pulls his truck to the side of a winding road and walks a few feet into the wooded area that lines it.

Farther in, stretched across the dirt, is an entrance to a cave — a karst that leads deep under the forest to the Edwards Aquifer. A grate has been installed on the opening to prevent anyone from climbing down into it.

The cave, called Sharon Springs, is one of 112 on Camp Bullis, a military training reservation on the Northwest Side. There are 1,474 karst features ​throughout Camp Bullis, ranging from small cracks and crevices to slits in the earth, that deposit water into the recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer.

“This one doesn’t seem springy right now,” said Tabor, natural resources manager for Joint Base San Antonio. “But if you come here during wet conditions, the water is actually pushing out of the ground.”

Safeguarding such caves is among many conservation efforts at Camp Bullis and its neighboring lands — nearly 1 million acres — that stand to get a huge boost from the area’s recent inclusion in a federal initiative aimed at protecting defense facilities from land uses that are incompatible with their military missions.

Grasses and berms are used to slow erosion at Camp Bullis, which was recently designated a Sentinel Landscape. The designation, part of a federal initiative called the Sentinel Landscape Partnership, will facilitate significant financial resources to protect military readiness and advance conservation and agricultural productivity. Robin Jerstad /Contributor

Under the initiative, called the Sentinel Landscape Partnership, such areas can seek to be designated as sentinel landscapes, which can provide priority standing to tap certain sources of public and private funding. Camp Bullis received the designation this month, putting it in line for financing opportunities to strengthen military readiness, promote natural resource conservation and increase agricultural productivity.

The Sentinel Landscape Partnership was established in 2013 by the Agriculture, Defense and Interior departments. The partnership seeks to connect landowners with government assistance programs to fund land protection and restoration and to implement sustainable land management practices. The aim is that such practices can yield economic and ecological benefits while also protecting defense facilities from development that can hamper military activities, such as training and testing.

The Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape is the first to receive this recognition in Texas and one of just a few in the United States. Nearly 40 local organizations have joined as partners, including the Hill Country Alliance, the Trinity Glenrose Groundwater Conservation District, the Edwards Aquifer Authority, the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute and the Alamo Area Council of Governments. The sentinel landscape will encompass most of Kendall and Comal counties; parts of Bexar, Medina and Bandera counties; and small sections of Kerr and Blanco counties.

The Defense Department’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program, known as REPI, is also a major partner for the sentinel landscape by limiting development and land use conversion that could restrict military training and testing. Three segments in the entire area are designated opportunity spots for REPI.

“Agricultural productivity, conservation and military readiness are all tied together in terms of our relationship to the land,” said Daniel Oppenheimer, land program manager for the Hill Country Alliance. “That’s really what this partnership is about, bringing partners together and starting to understand where and how we can work together to bring new technical and financial resources that align with all the ground needs.”

STEMMING LIGHTS AND FLOODS
Thousands of military personnel train each year on the nearly 28,000 acres at Camp Bullis, part of Joint Base San Antonio. The base has 266 mission partners, and about 2,000 people train there every day.

Most of those are training as military medics. Every enlisted medical person in the U.S. military trains at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, said Michael Waldrop, the installation support director at Camp Bullis. And they all undergo field components of their training in the natural areas on Camp Bullis.
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“In a war zone, you’re usually out in areas like this nature,” Waldrop said. “We want it to be as realistic as possible, so we can’t have any urban elements. They do their urban training elsewhere.”

Development near Camp Bullis can lead to light pollution, loss of agricultural lands and flooding. Outdoor lighting around the northwestern area of San Antonio, from new subdivisions or traffic, can disrupt the natural atmosphere for training. The area south of Camp Bullis is already too heavily illuminated, but the central portion of the camp to the north is still suitable for night training.

But there is concern that lighting is increasing to the north, which is one of the fastest-growing areas in Texas, and not just among the military. Light pollution can also disrupt natural patterns for wildlife, such as bird migration; increase carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; and obscure the stars.

With this new designation, partners can work with developers to preserve dark night skies for military training, birds, natural resources and public health, Oppenheimer said. One solution is to provide funding for landowners and developers to focus their floodlights downward in their yards instead of reaching areas that don’t need to be illuminated.

Another issue the Sentinel Landscape Partnership can tackle is flooding in Camp Bullis, 30 percent of which lies in a flood plain, and the surrounding areas.

The Texas Hill Country is known as flash flood alley because of its shallow soils and the steady moisture and humidity that comes off the Gulf of Mexico, making the area vulnerable to massive dry spells and drought followed by catastrophic floods.

At Camp Bullis, flash flooding has washed trucks away, covered roads and fields, and even killed a handful of people who got stuck in the floodwaters.
One solution involves speaking with landowners and developers about their own goals and values, Oppenheimer said.

“We’re not coming in and telling people what to do,” he said. “We talk about different tools and strategies to get them aligned with their goals and their interests. They don’t want to lose all their soil. They don’t want to be susceptible to drought and flood. Then, based on that, we discuss ways they can retain more soil moisture, reduce erosion and enhance grass production on their property.”

One flood prevention technique is building berms to slow water and enable it to be absorbed into the soil, a practice that is especially helpful during heavy rain. A berm is a raised barrier separating areas and can be made from brush and tree limbs or a grassy strip. With funding through the sentinel partnership, landowners could receive resources to build such structures or hire contractors to help them prepare the land for flooding.

Around Camp Bullis, berms are around the entire area for flooding, some made with brush and others with dirt and grass. In some cases, the berms serve multiple purposes — as bullet catchers for military range practice along with flood prevention.

“It’s not just us,” Waldrop said. “It’s everyone.”

WATER AS A JOINT MISSION
Tabor’s work at Camp Bullis includes protecting the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone’s caves and karsts, along with closely monitoring wildlife on the property, especially creatures that depend on the property for survival.
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Camp Bullis provides habitat for the endangered golden-cheeked warbler and aquifer-dependent species, such as the blind salamander, San Marcos salamander and Comal Springs riffle beetle. Three river systems — the Medina, the San Antonio and the Cibolo — run through the Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape’s massive area.

Decomposing wood helps the ground to absorb more water at Camp Bullis, which was recently designated a Sentinel Landscape. The designation, part of a federal initiative called the Sentinel Landscape Partnership, will facilitate significant financial resources to protect military readiness and advance conservation and agricultural productivity. Robin Jerstad /Contributor

Of the 28,000 acres at Camp Bullis, 4,000 are within the recharge zone. It is also at the convergence of the Trinity Aquifer and karst features along Cibolo Creek. Two aquifers — the Trinity and Edwards — meet under Camp Bullis and influence each other through the flow of groundwater.

All military personnel and others at Camp Bullis depend on water from the Trinity Aquifer and its relationship with the Edwards Aquifer. Compared to the Edwards, the Trinity recharges slowly and needs more time to refresh.

At the Trinity Glen Rose Groundwater Conservation District, Assistant General Manager Amanda Maloukis said a large part of the Sentinel Landscape Partnership’s mission is protecting, preserving and conserving groundwater resources.

“We can bring in educational pieces to the community, to those ranches and landowners, that really helps enhance their own personal conservation efforts,” she said. “We have rain barrel workshops, which can help people put less stress on the aquifer. We have these high-precipitation events, flooding events, and we’re catching that extra runoff in barrels, which can be used.”

Some of the funding could also be used for further research on groundwater dynamics. By better understanding how the aquifers work together and contribute to the greater ecosystem, organizations and agencies can better protect the water for future generations.

Development around Camp Bullis can bring more pressure to the area in terms of pollution, spills and runoff into both aquifers. Groundwater, Maloukis said, is not just for communities around Camp Bullis, but also for the military within the conservation district. It’s important for everyone involved to keep it clean, and with the new sentinel landscape designation, the hope is they’re heading in the right direction.
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“All of this water is tied together in terms of our relationship to the land,” Oppenheimer said. “That’s what this is all about, bringing everyone together to see how all these pieces fit into a really complex puzzle.”

​The Lone Star State’s First Sentinel Landscape Designation: Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape Consortium

The Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape Consortium is a partnership focused on conserving natural resources, strengthening military readiness, and bolstering agricultural productivity around Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis.

Camp Bullis is located in northern Bexar County on the Edwards Aquifer Recharge and Contributing Zones. Here, Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA) provides training opportunities for 266 mission partners; this includes supporting all Department of Defense (DoD) enlisted and officer medical training, military intelligence, special forces, pre-deployment, national, and international training requirements.

With rapid population growth emanating from San Antonio and the I-35 corridor, the Texas Hill Country and Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape (CBSL) are facing a mounting number of challenges affecting the long-term resilience of the region’s natural resources. New development contributes to the loss of agricultural lands and increased ambient light pollution, ​impacting nighttime military training. Growing demands on existing water supply have led to the loss of spring flow and aquifer drawdowns, impacting drinking water supplies for Camp Bullis, rural landowners, towns, and cities.

These and other challenges have attracted a myriad of partners to come together to create a collective vision for how to invest in protecting the natural resources that define the region as it grows. Since 2021, HCA has coordinated this collaborative effort, engaging dozens of partner organizations to collaborate towards shared goals.

Collaborative work will especially focus on supporting private landowners with resources that align with their stewardship goals. Thoughtful land stewardship provides rippling benefits, not only for the private landowner, but for society and future generations. Good land stewardship enhances water quality and quantity, mitigates floods and drought, supports agricultural productivity, and improves wildlife habitat.
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The Consortium will also work to address regional challenges and opportunities, including: reducing light pollution that impairs nighttime training capabilities at Camp Bullis; mitigating wildfire risks to the military installation and nearby communities; and expanding access to public recreation areas.

Learn more about the Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape Consortium.

This map of land cover within the Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape boundary shows largely undeveloped shrub and evergreen forests facing encroaching development from San Antonio.

This map shows the boundary lines of the Sentinel Landscape designation surrounding Camp Bullis as it relates to the Edwards Aquifer, communities, and nearby military bases.

About The ​Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape Consortium

Video: A New Frontier in Public-Private Land Conservation and Stewardship.
In this 7-minute recording from the 2021 Hill Country Leadership Summit, HCA’s Land Program Manager Daniel Oppenheimer presents a new project to advance collaborative conservation in the southern Hill Country.

CONSORTIUM PARTNERS
This work is made possible through ongoing collaboration between more than 30 partners, including Comal County Conservation Alliance, across the region. Consortium partners are divided into two categories – signatory partners are charter members that signed a memorandum; supporting organizations are part of the core team and have invested significant time in the project.

The Importance of Sentinel Landscape Consortiums