Program objective

The mission of the DoD Legacy Program is to provide coordinated, Department-wide, and partnership-based integration of military mission readiness with the conservation of irreplaceable natural and cultural resources. The Secretary of Defense established the Legacy Program in 1991 with the mandate to identify, manage, inventory, conserve, restore and rehabilitate significant biological, geophysical, cultural, and historical resources existing on or involving DOD lands, facilities, and property. The Legacy Program funds innovative and coordinated conservation and cultural activities of national or regional significance to better support DOD’s ever evolving mission, stewardship, and regulatory requirements. The Program supports the military’s combat readiness mission by ensuring continued access to the nearly 27 million acres of DoD land, air, and water resources needed to accomplish vital testing, training and operational activities. Priority project areas that the DoD Legacy Program will consider funding are: • Improving management and conservation of biodiversity, particularly focused on DoD “mission priority species,” Recovery and Sustainment Partnership efforts, and at-risk Monarch/pollinator species • Improving consultation and coordination with Indian Tribal Governments and Tribal Nations and Native Hawaiian Organizations, and inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge in management programs • Improving cultural resources management processes through enhanced environmental resilience, project management, and building energy efficiency. • Improving techniques and approaches for resilient lands and ecosystem management • Improving wildland fire management and risk reduction. • Readiness and range sustainment * Climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience • Incorporating new or emerging technologies • Improving data and information management • Regulatory and management efficiencies.