Darlen, Georgia The Marine Corps issued a notice of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the modernization and expansion of its Townsend Bombing Range (TBR) in southeast Georgia. The 5,100 acre range is owned by the Marine Corps but is managed by the Georgia Air National Guard. Currently more than 3,000 training flights are conducted over the range per year. Details of the size of the proposed expansion have not been released but reportedly only practice munitions with spotting charges will be authorized for use.

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Oceanside, California A fire broke out in the Yankee impact area of Camp Pendleton which quickly spread to 500 acres. Firefighters have contained the blaze but concerns over potential UXO in the area have hampered response activities. So far the fire has not threatened any buildings or major structures. The cause of the fire is under investigation, one of the areas that investigators will focus on is the types of munitions recently fired in the area to see if the cause of the fire is related to munitions firing.

Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey The New Jersey Air National Guard managed Warren Grove Gunnery Range is schedule to re-open for training. The range was closed for training last year after a pyrotechnic incendiary munition dropped by an aircraft sparked a 17,000 acre forest fire back in May 2007. The range will be open for both ground and air training but munitions use will be temporarily banned. When munitions use resumes in the future, incendiary devices and pyrotechnics will be not be authorized.

Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland A series of tests involving the firing of 20 armor piercing projectiles completed earlier this month marked the last planned firing of DU at the Duncrennan range. The recent limited DU testing stirred up a tremendous amount of controversy and debate between environmental groups and the Ministry of Defence (MOD) that reunited a seven year old debate over potential environmental impacts from DU.

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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on DoD's use of environmental exemptions related to military training range activities. For their data collection effort, the GAO visited 17 installations and interviewed several top-level DoD and Regulatory officials. In the report, the GAO stated they "found no instances where DOD's use of exemptions from the Endangered Species Act or the Migratory Bird Treaty Act has adversely affected the environment". The GAO did not assess DoD's use of the Marine Mammal Protection Act exemption.

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Stafford Township, New Jersey  Air National Guard (ANG) officials announced at a public meeting that live-fire training involving military flares would not resume anytime in the near future at the Warren Grove Gunnery Range pending a comprehensive review of range practices. The need for the comprehensive review was 'sparked off' as a result of an incident that occurred back in May when a training mission involving a military flare started a large forest fire. The fire burned over 16,000 acres, damaged several houses, and caused the evacuations of hundreds of residents.

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Fort Huachuca, Arizona  A training exercise conducted by the 860th Military Police Company from the Arizona National Guard inadvertently started a fire that rapidly expanded due to extremely dry conditions. The fire reportedly started when a rocket projected grenade ricocheted off of its intended target, a mock tank. The incident happened on Range 9 located in Garden Canyon.

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Eglin AFB, Florida  The Air Force made a request to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for a renewal of an authorization to harass marine mammals, incidental to conducting air-to-surface gunnery missions in the Gulf of Mexico. The military readiness training exercises involve the firing of 25mm, 40mm, and 105mm projectiles into the water. In the request, the Air Force asked for continued authorization to fire high explosive rounds so that a surface splash is produced for visual scoring purposes. However, the Air Force stated that it will use training rounds that contain significantly less amount of explosives to mitigate the effects on marine life during training missions at night when a splash is not visible.

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Canberra, Australia  The Australian Defence [Defense] Department announced that they want to shoot close to 3,000 kangaroos within the Majura military training range. The Defense Department claims that the kangaroo population in the area is so dense (estimated at 1,100 kangaroos per square mile) that the habitat of several endangered species is being destroyed. They also claim that the kangaroo population is too dense for the drought-ravaged environment to sustain and without the thinning of the population, they face starvation.

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