Proposed Army Helicopter Training

April 7, 2016 Army Helicopter Training Update

The U.S. Army has dropped its plans to use landing zones in the North Cascades to train combat helicopter pilots. The decision came after a review of 2,350 public and agency comments, according to an announcement issued Thursday (April 7) by the Aviation Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM).

The landing zones “have been removed from consideration, and will not be included in any follow-up environmental assessment,” according to the statement by JBLM. The Army will still analyze potential helicopter training areas and landing zones elsewhere in the state, the statement said.

 

Army’s Proposed Off-base Helicopter Training - June, 2015

The US Army’s Aviation Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) issued a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) scoping document in June 2015 outlining their intent to establish off-base helicopter training and landing areas in the state of Washington. Broadly speaking, these new training and landing areas would be located in the North Cascades backcountry of the Okanogan-Wenatchee (O-W) National Forest and in a large area of southwest (SW) WA on the door step of Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. According to the Army, these off-base training areas, once established, “would be available for use day and night, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with the exception of Federal holidays”. Further the Army estimates that “each helicopter training landing session of up to 4 hours in duration would involve as many as 7 helicopters performing 10-20 landings.”

Several members of Sierra Club Washington State Chapter’s National Forest (NF) Committee were notified of the Army’s plans and the public comment period on the initial scoping document. The Chapter’s NF Committee led by members of your local North Olympic Group prepared and submitted to the Army at JBLM extensive comments under the Sierra Club letterhead. Read our comments.The Chapter’s NF Committee also signed on to (along with 64 other conservation, recreation and wildlife organizations including businesses local to the proposed training areas) a coordinated set of comments initiated by WA Wild. Read their comments.

Chief among our many concerns with the Army’s proposed off-base training and landing areas as scoped are the following:

  • Failure of the Army to recognize and list the 1964 Federal Wilderness Act as a key law governing their use of proposed training and landing areas
  • Several of the proposed training and landing areas in the O-W National Forest are located in designated wilderness (i.e. Alpine Lakes), and landing of aircraft is prohibited in designated wilderness.
  • Army has scoped to prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA) which generally leads to a finding of no significant impact (FONSI), which is not appropriate, according to NEPA, given the complexity and controversial nature of their proposal.
  • Several of the proposed training and landing areas in both the O-W National Forest and in SW Washington are located in or near critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, are located in or near WA-designated natural resource conservation areas (NRCA), or are located on or near popular trails (i.e. Pacific Crest Trail), hiking and camping areas.
  •  Lack of specificity as to which training and landing areas are under the jurisdiction of WA State Department of Natural Resources.

We agree with statements made in the co-signed comment letter from WA Wild, that we all want our military to be well trained and ready to defend our country. However the Army should be able to achieve their goals without threatening our country’s investments in conservation, recreational opportunities and preservation of wildlife habitat.

The Army closed the public comment period for the scoping phase in November 2015 and their next steps will likely include review and analysis of all public comments and the drafting of either an EA (as the Army has scoped) or an environmental impact statement (EIS) (as we have requested). Once the draft document has been issued in 2016 the public will be notified and a public review period starts.