JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-CAMP BULLIS, Texas –
Officials from the Hill Country Alliance, along with Kendall County engineers, project managers, and local leaders, met on Dec. 2 at Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis to discuss the installation’s training mission, current challenges, and mutual concerns regarding military readiness and natural resources conservation.
Michael Waldrop, director of installation support at JBSA-Camp Bullis, highlighted one of the biggest challenges the installation faces is light pollution from nearby development, which hinders nighttime mission training.
“San Antonio is one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S., and if we don’t address this issue now, in 15 years, we could lose the ability to conduct nighttime training, which might very well result in the need to move these operations elsewhere,” Waldrop said.
Waldrop stressed the importance of implementing dark sky lighting regulations in nearby counties to protect both overall environmental equities as well as military readiness.
“If we lose our dark skies, we lose the ability to conduct critical training at JBSA-Camp Bullis,” he said. “For example, Army helicopter pilots and Air Force special warfare personnel use special night vision goggles during certain nighttime training operations. These goggles detect heat to identify movement, but excessive ambient light renders them almost useless.”
Waldrop also noted the southern boundary of JBSA-Camp Bullis has already lost the ability to conduct many nighttime training events due to ambient light pollution, so efforts are now focused on preserving the northern boundary, which spans into parts of Kendall and Comal counties.
Another major point at the meeting was the Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape Partnership, a collaborative initiative supporting local needs that are compatible with military training.
The partnership secures and leverages technical and financial resources to support natural resources conservation, bolster agricultural productivity, protect night skies, and enhance resilience to drought, flooding, and wildfire in the surrounding area.
Daniel Oppenheimer, land program director for the Hill Country Alliance and coordinator of the Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape partnership, provided an overview of the program.
“The Department of Defense, Department of the Interior, and Department of Agriculture recognized that what happens outside the fence line can impact what happens on installations. Together, they created the Sentinel Landscape program to support local and regional initiatives off-base that support military readiness, conservation, and agricultural productivity,” he explained.
The program prioritizes funding for areas designated as Sentinel Landscapes. These federal funds are highly competitive and difficult to obtain without the designation.
Richard King, program manager for the JBSA Community Mission Integration Team, elaborated on how these funds are used.
“Along the northern boundary of the installation, we’re using federal grant money to purchase conservation easements from willing landowners,” King said. “They receive 60 to 80 percent of their land’s retail value, allowing them to continue their land activities while preserving compatibility with our mission.”
“We aren’t against development, but we want development that’s compatible with our mission,” he said. “Currently, we have about 60 percent of the northern boundary under easement.”
King also noted recent partnership efforts by the San Antonio River Authority and other partners to secure funding for a flood resilience study of Upper Cibolo Creek; if funded, this study will inform flood reduction efforts for both JBSA-Camp Bullis and surrounding communities.
All the efforts to protect and sustain JBSA-Camp Bullis are vital to the installation remaining viable in the future, contributing to the local economy.
According to Oppenheimer, JBSA overall contributes $55 billion to the Texas economy each year.
Dawn Davies, night skies program manager for the Hill Country Alliance, reiterated the importance of protecting the country’s dark skies.
“Before 2023, we were operating under the belief that we were losing our dark skies at a rate of 2 percent per year. We now know that here in the Hill Country, and across much of the U.S., that rate is as high as 10 percent,” Davies said. “This trend is a significant issue for military readiness, especially for nighttime training.”
The group toured a few of the institutional training sites on the installation, to include the Soldier Medic Training Site for U.S. Army medics and the Medical Readiness Training Center for U.S. Air Force personnel. The tour also included viewing Land Navigation Course sites and the installation’s Combat Assault Landing Strip on the northern boundary as examples of the operational scope of the installation.
For more information on the Sentinel Landscape or the Dark Skies program, contact JBSA public affairs at 502ABW.PA.official@us.af.mil.