Evaluation of Military Range Berm Effectiveness in Protecting Red-cockaded Woodpecker Foraging and Nesting Habitat

This research examined the effectiveness of berms at protecting downrange Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) foraging and nesting habitat. Forest vegetation was characterized based on munitions impacts and damage with respect to horizontal and lateral distances for bermed and unbermed small caliber military ranges. Acoustical equipment was tested to demonstrate its effectiveness at quantifying down-range bullet fire. Wound severity was found to decrease with both lateral and horizontal distances downrange from firing lanes for both bermed and unbermed ranges. Berms appear effective at reducing the amount and severity of bullet strikes that trees receive below 3 m out to 150 m from the end of the range. Acoustic sub-sampling of a bermed site found it was effective at stopping upwards of 97.0-97.6% of bullet fire. Acoustical techniques appear to offer a viable method for quantifying downrange bullet overshot. A number of bullet ricochets were recorded during testing and appear to be a common occurrence at live-fire ranges and contribute to tree damage downrange. It important that installations investigate ways to reduce bullet ricochets around target areas. Tree density increased across all areas downrange of the bermed site that was tested, which suggests that berms are effective at stopping bullets that hit berms directly. The original document contains color images.