Northern Edge and the Environment

  • Published
  • By MSgt Karin Krause
  • Northern Edge Public Affairs
Elmendorf AFB, AK --  With stunning mountains as a backdrop, abundant wildlife, a considerable amount of land mass, thousands of miles of water frontage, and expansive, seemingly never-ending skies, Alaska is a beautiful state with many resources.

Three of those resources - the land mass, sea access and airspace - are also why Alaska is home to several large military training exercises each year, such as the ongoing Northern Edge 2008 (NE08) which began May 5 and runs through May 16.

The focus for NE08 is to provide realistic wartime training in the air and sea environment within waters of the United States and its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the maritime zone extending 200 nm from the U.S. shoreline. The exercise also enhances interoperability between the services and supports the mission of the Alaskan Command (ALCOM) to integrate military forces within Alaska to maximize the readiness of theater forces and expedite deployment of forces from and through Alaska in support of worldwide contingencies.

"We're pretty excited about Alaska, the airspace, and the training opportunities here," said Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins, Commander ALCOM. "I've flown in the Pacific Alaska Range Complex (PARC), so I know how valuable that airspace is, and that training environment is.

"I also know that for us as a nation that these training ranges and the airspace are evaporating, making the PARC a unique national treasure," the general added.
And like any national treasure, the PARC and the surrounding training areas need to be protected.

"While the military training exercises are critical to the readiness of U.S. forces, at the same time, I think that we all have to be long-term environmental stewards; so what we do doesn't either damage the environment today, or damage the environment tomorrow," said General Atkins.

With that stewardship in mind, a lot of work has gone into making sure the activities of Northern Edge 2008 (NE08) does not damage the environment. In fact, a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) mandated environmental analysis found that the activities within the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) associated with the exercise will have no effect on the Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed species that potentially live within or near the GOA, according to ESA Adolfson and LGL Ltd., which prepared the Environmental Assessment/Overseas Environmental Assessment (EA/OEA). 

This EA/OEA also addressed potential cumulative impacts to the following resources that might result from NE08 in combination with other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions: water resources, biological resources, environmental justice, and vessel traffic. The analysis concluded that potential cumulative impacts to these resources will not be significant, according to ESA Adolfson and LGL Ltd

In addition, the EA/OEA concluded that the potential for NE08 vessel activities to temporarily hinder commercial and recreational vessel traffic is likely to be negligible, according to ESA Adolfson and LGL Ltd.

While the military has followed the NEPA guidelines, the leadership is well aware that it takes the support of the people who live in Alaska to make military training exercises a success.

"I'd like to thank the people of Alaska for your support and assure you that we are very conscious of our environmental responsibilities," said Adm. Timothy Keating, Commander U.S. Pacific Command. "We want to be good stewards of this great state and you have our firm commitment that we are going leave it better than we found it.
"Thank you for what you let [the military] do around your state. The training we conduct, the tactics we practice, will stand us in very good stead if we are called on to support our nation."