Citing creative and effective solutions to protect Hawai'i's ecosystems and imperiled species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week named U.S. Army Garrison-Pohakuloa as the winner of the 2006 Military Conservation Partner Award.

"The U.S. Army Garrison-Pohakuloa in Hawai'i is an outstanding example of how today's military is going green — and I'm not referring to olive drab," H. Dale Hall, Director of the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service quipped in a news release.

"Pohakuloa demonstrates how a military installation can make a major contribution to conservation efforts. The Service applauds Pohakuloa's cooperative conservation achievements, especially their proactive habitat restoration and endangered species monitoring program, which exemplifies positive cooperation between government and private-sector partners."

The award, presented at the 72nd North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Portland, Ore., was created by the Fish and Wildlife Service to recognize military installations that have made significant natural resource conservation achievements through cooperative work with the federal agency, state and local government, and other organizations. Such achievements include the conservation, protection and restoration of important habitat for a variety of species — including endangered and native species — on military lands.

Col. Howard J. Killian, commander, U.S. Army Garrison, Hawai'i, said in a news release: "So many times when people see Army green they only see the military operations side, and that's something we need to change. Army-wide, there is a growing emphasis on building a sustainability ethos."

The 131,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area — on the Big Island between Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, and the Hualalai Mountains — is the largest Department of Defense installation in Hawai'i.

Pohakuloa's natural resource staff helps protect 19 federally listed species — 15 threatened or endangered plant species, three bird species and one mammal. Several of the endangered plant species exist only at Pohakuloa and their numbers are critically low due to threats such as over-grazing, competition from invasive plants, and wildfires.

Pohakuloa also works with organizations to decrease over-grazing by allowing controlled hunting of feral sheep, goats, and pigs. By restricting grazing, the Fish and Wildlife Service noted, the natural resource staff has exceeded expectations for protection of listed plant species on rare Hawaiian sub alpine tropical dry land forest.

To prevent grazing damage, Pohakuloa has gone to great effort and expense to erect over 7,000 acres of exclusionary fencing and plans to fence a total of 33,000 acres. This exclusionary fencing also benefits the Hawaiian hoary bat by allowing mature shelter trees used for roosting and breeding purposes.