The forested ridgelines and open prairies around Colorado Springs military bases could get more care and conservation in the coming years to address risks like wildfire and flooding under a new federal designation. 

The Sentinel Landscape designation through a partnership among the Departments of Agriculture, Interior and Defense is expected to help address key risks to the five bases in town, including wildfire, flooding and incompatible encroachment. It will also help conserve wildlife habitat and encourage water and energy resilience, according to a news release. 

“It is a national recognition of the importance of our region for national security,” said Rebecca Jewett, CEO of the Palmer Land Conservancy, one of the 18 partner organizations on the project.

There are 21 sentinel landscapes across the country, including an area in the Florida Panhandle home to nine military installations where about 30,000 acres have been conserved since 2022. 

The Pikes Peak Region was one of two Sentinel Landscapes to receive the designation this year after a two-year application process, said Paul O’Brien, who worked to coordinate the effort through the El Pomar Foundation. The designation is permanent as long as the work is active. 

The community’s success conserving land around the Bullseye Auxiliary Airstrip east of Colorado Springs to ensure young Air Force Academy cadets have a safe space to practice led to the invitation to consider applying for the Sentinel Program, he explained. 

Near the airstrip, conservation-focused nonprofits are working to purchase the 48,000-acre Bohart Ranch from the State Land Board over 10 years with the intent that it will remain a working ranch forever. The State Land Board holds land to generate revenue for education. For example, it can lease land for oil and gas drilling and for windmills.

Open ranch land is a good neighbor to the airstrip because it ensures safe space is available for emergency landings while young pilots are learning to land, statistically the most probable time for an engine to fail, The Gazette reported previously.

The new Sentinel Landscape designation received buy-in from all five bases in town, including Fort Carson, Peterson and Schriever Space Force Bases, Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station and the academy, and officials from those bases identified their priorities, O’Brien said. The Air Force Academy will be the anchor installation for the program.

The long list of partners also includes the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife, El Paso County and the city of Colorado Springs, among others. 

Now the designation is in place, it should make projects on lands around bases more competitive for grant dollars and enhance the collaboration that is already happening among federal, state and local land managers, O’Brien said.

It is expected to make the region more competitive for dollars through the DOD’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program that can help set aside land around military installations as buffer zones. Such zones can help prevent conflicts between military installations and their neighbors. 

It wouldn’t replace any current groups focused on issues such as wildfire mitigation, but it could provide additional support, O’Brien said. 

“I think we’ll see bigger projects that are going to take place that are going to be more inclusive of the entire community,” he said. 

For example, the Forest Service has a wildfire mitigation project planned west of the Air Force Academy to reduce brush and other vegetation that can provide a ladder for fire to climb up into the tree canopy.

The new designation could help expand similar projects, O’Brien said.

Preventing severe wildfires can also help prevent flooding and debris flows that are common following fires that wipe out vegetation needed to hold soils in place.

In another case, the designation could help with efforts to conserve land along Colorado 115 near Fort Carson called Table Mountain, to ensure helicopters can continue passing overhead on their way to a high-elevation training area without triggering complaints from residential neighbors, O’Brien said. Conservation along that corridor would also protect habitat for pinyon jays, a species in sharp decline.

The program is not meant to stop regional growth, Jewett explained, but ensure it happens thoughtfully and in a way that doesn’t harm the bases. 

The most immediate next step will be hiring a coordinator, with funds provided through the new designation, she said. 

“We need to keep our bases as resilient and strong as possible,” she said.