<p>At military bases in the South, the signs of sprawl aren't high-rise condominiums or eight-lane highways but endangered woodpeckers and deafening jet noise.</p><p>Many of the region's installations were built during or before World War II in places where there was a surplus of land and shortage of people. Despite unprecedented growth in recent years, most Southern bases are still more isolated than those elsewhere _ but that could soon change.</p><p>How bases are dealing with sprawl is one of the factors confronting the Pentagon this year as it decides which military bases to keep in what is expected to be the largest round of military closings in decades.</p><p>"Try to look down the road at the demographics and growth patterns down South," said Ray Clark, who was an assistant secretary of the Army for installations and environment during the Clinton administration. "If they don't do that, they are going to end up inadvertently buying into something long-term they might not be able to sustain."</p><p>Depending on how the independent base closure commission conducts its analysis, the timing of this round of closures could benefit Southern bases, many of which are experiencing growing pains, but not yet the concrete-pouring variety.</p><p>"I'm absolutely certain the South will make out better than any other region of the country," said Loren Thompson, defense analyst for the Lexington Institute.</p><p>In a bit of a policy change, the Pentagon devoted several million dollars this year to confront encroachment issues head-on _ something Clark says he advocated more than a decade ago to little fanfare. Much of the money will likely go to the South, where there is still time to plan before its bases become suburbs.</p><p>Fort Bragg in North Carolina has been heralded as a model for how to deal with growth and encroachment issues. The endangered red-cockaded woodpecker is native to the area, but rather than battle to get the base closed, environmentalists fought to keep it open.</p><p>A unique partnership among the state, U.S. Army and Nature Conservancy led to the establishment of a 2,500-acre preserve for the woodpecker near Fort Bragg.</p><p>That partnership was so successful that the Nature Conservancy has been working on others with military bases including North Carolina's Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base, Florida's Eglin Air Force Base and Georgia's Fort Stewart. More than 350 endangered species live on military bases.</p><p>"Some people may think it's counterintuitive, but there is such biodiversity and critical habitat on military bases, and the military needs a lot of nature habitat to produce its training exercises," said Karen Foerstel, communications manager for the Nature Conservancy. "It's really a win-win situation."</p><p>Besides dealing with the woodpecker issue, communities around Fort Bragg have offered to waive property taxes for landowners who agree not to develop their land.</p><p>"These efforts can't be a one-time deal," said Bill Martin, president of the Cumberland County Business Council. "It's got to be a concerted, long-term basis."</p><p>Not all encroachment debates around Southern military bases have ended as peacefully.</p><p>Several thousand residents of Virginia Beach are asking that Naval Air Station Oceana move the F/A-18s elsewhere because they see no other way to stop their noisy fly-overs during training exercises.</p><p>"They cannot sleep at night," said Kimberly Johnson, chairwoman of Citizens Concerned about Jet Noise. "They cannot talk on their phones, listen to their televisions or carry on any kind of conversations. It's more than an annoyance. It's an extreme health hazard."</p><p>Environmental regulations posed the greatest threat to Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Ga., although that issue now seems to be resolved.</p><p>Originally the Environmental Protection Agency tagged Houston County, where the base is located, as being in violation of smog limits, which would have required new controls crippling some training exercises. Community activists were able to convince the EPA that the pollution was coming from nearby Bibb County and that Houston County's air was sufficiently clean.</p><p>"Had we not taken that initiative, we would have wound up in non-attainment, and there could have been very unfortunate consequences," said Maj. Gen. Ron Smith, chairman of the 21st Century Partnership _ a support group for the base.</p><p>In Atlanta and Jacksonville, Fla., sprawl in the more traditional sense has arrived at the edge of military bases. Development has left little room for military growth at a Navy Depot in Jacksonville and four Atlanta-area bases: Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Naval Air Station-Atlanta, Fort McPherson and Fort Gillem.</p><p>That could make those bases susceptible for closure this year because the Pentagon is expected to advocate a realignment plan that calls for fewer but larger installations.</p><p>Gen. James Shane, who helped lead the base closure process for the Army in 1995 and is now working to protect Kentucky's bases this time, says the Pentagon shouldn't be concerned about the spread of cities around installations. Such growth could actually be positive for the military, he said, provided those communities are supportive _ as most in the South are.</p><p>"I see our military bases in the future becoming more of a component, being integrated into the community and less isolated than we've seen in the last 50 years," Shane said.</p><p>Clark, who started his government career at the now-defunct Fort McClellan in Anniston, Ala., said the Pentagon hasn't always paid enough attention to sprawl when deciding which bases to close.</p><p>For example, one of the reasons McClellan got the Army's Chemical School in the early 1980s was because Anniston allowed smoke-training exercises while its previous home, Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, did not. Yet McClellan was still closed in 1995, and the chemical school was moved to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Population density didn't allow for smoke training there either.</p><p>Clark says McClellan is just one example of an unwise closure for a strategically located base because the Pentagon didn't adequately consider issues pertaining to growth.</p><p>"We can't just stop at our fence line and think we don't have to deal with those things happening outside the fence," Clark said.</p>
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