Author: schommer
Nothing but flowers: On an Air Force base, CEMML helps create pollinator habitat
As a participant in CEMML’s Early-Career Development Program, Rebecca Morse is supporting pollinators and the military mission at Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. Morse and her counterparts at the installation planted native wildflowers and grasses in a new pollinator garden they created on land once occupied by military housing and a golf course. Work on the garden has also involved local families as well as airmen from the installation.
May 6, 2025
CEMML staff present as part of Natural Areas Association webinar
CEMML Assistant Director, Mindy Clarke, and Principal Investigators Jennie Anderson and Dave Jones recently presented as part of a webinar hosted by the Natural Areas Association. Clarke began the presentations by providing an overview of CEMML and our work on military lands. Jones then presented on the ‘Importance of DoD Lands to Biodiversity Conservation,’ and Anderson wrapped things up with her insights on ‘Natural Resources Management Planning & Partnerships.’
April 1, 2025
CEMML supports prescribed burn season at Fort McCoy
The 2025 prescribed burn season has been under way in early to mid-March 2025 at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. The prescribed burn team includes personnel from CEMML in partnership with several other entities at the installation. The prescribed burn season continues into the spring with the aim of improving wildlife habitat, controlling invasive plant species, maintaining native plant communities, and reducing wildfire potential.
March 26, 2025
Colorado State University and University of Guam sign MOU
Alonso A. Aguirre, Dean of the Warner College of Natural Resources, and the leadership team from the Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands recently traveled to Guam to sign a MOU between the University of Guam and Colorado State University. The MOU aims to provide opportunities for future collaboration and cooperation including internship placement of University of Guam students into natural and cultural resource management opportunities with Warner College/CEMML.
February 27, 2025
CEMML archaeologists unearth Wisconsin dairy history from early 1900s
A glass bottle fragment recovered from Fort McCoy, Wisconsin was found to originate from the Beaver Creek Dairy company in Sparta, WI. The company, established in the early 1910s, remained in operation through the early 1970s. It is unclear if the bottle glass fragment recovered by the CEMML archaeologists was originally delivered to a homestead or soldiers training at Fort McCoy.
February 6, 2025
CEMML executive director named as key personnel in CSU $326M award
The Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency have awarded $326 million to three Colorado State University research projects that aim to improve U.S. oil and gas operations and reduce methane emissions nationwide. The executive director of the Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Barker Fariss, has been named as key personnel on one of the three projects. That $300 million grant focuses on reducing methane emissions from low-producing and conventional wells.
January 18, 2025
Restoring native vegetation for endangered plants in Hawai’i
An article by CEMML staff member Lena Schnell was recently published in the U.S. Army’s Ecosystem Management Protection Bulletin. In the article, Schnell highlights how the Natural Resources Program at U.S. Army Garrison, Pōhakuloa Training Area and CEMML are working to restore native habitats of Pu’u Nohona O Hae, a prominent cinder cone on Hawai’i island.
January 14, 2025
CEMML intern wins 2024 Great Plains CESU Award
Levin Brandt, an intern with CEMML’s Early-career Development Program, was presented with the annual Great Plains CESU Graduate Student Award for his outstanding work supporting ecosystems on Air Force installations in Nebraska, South Dakota, Colorado, and North Dakota. Mr. Brandt is a graduate student in Biology at the University of North Dakota.
November 8, 2024
CEMML helps preserve history of nuclear submarines and ships
In the early 1950s, the U.S. Navy was keen on developing nuclear-powered engines to propel submarines and aircraft carriers. Prototyping and testing of these reactors took place at the Nuclear Propulsion Program’s Naval Reactors Facility in Idaho. CEMML has supported the NRF in documenting and preserving the history of this landmark development site and the engineers who worked there.
November 5, 2024
NAVFAC, CEMML battle brown tree snake to protect Guam’s endangered swiftlets
In a video by Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Marianas, CEMML invasive species biologist, Virginie Ternisien explains how she uses dead mice laced with acetaminophen to reduce brown tree snake populations on Guam. The invasive predator is a major threat to the endangered Mariana swiftlet, a small cave-dwelling bird native to the Mariana Islands.
October 30, 2024
On remote Pacific Islands, CEMML helps eradicate invasive rats
In 2020, a joint project to eradicate invasive rats from the Wake Island Atoll was created between the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services, CEMML, and other collaborators. Using poisoned bait and traps, as well as other preventative biosecurity measures, the project has experienced great success in the last four years. Rat populations have been radically reduced with the hope that they will be fully eradicated from the three islands that make up the atoll within another year.
September 3, 2024
On Travis Air Force Base, a rare salamander gets a helping hand
Twice a year, federally protected California tiger salamanders make their pilgrimage between breeding pond and burrow. At Travis Air Force Base, that bi-annual journey includes obstacles like runways and streets. CEMML biologists in partnership with Travis’ natural resources program is helping the species navigate those obstacles. Their efforts ensure the species’ survival, while also allowing the Air Force to continue to carry out its mission.
July 11, 2024