Final Environmental Assessment for the Semiannual Joint Integrated Fires Exercises at Avon Park Air Force Range, Florida

The semiannual Joint Integrated Fires Exercises trains Tactical Air Controller Parties (TACPs) and Forward Observers (FOs) in coordinating the delivery of ordnance from aircraft, ground artillery, and mortars. While some of the proposed training has been assessed by the National Environmental Policy Act in the past some elements are either new or were assessed as a one-time event and are now assessed in this environmental assessment. New elements include creating new mortar firing points and firing areas firing artillery into a small, high-explosive impact area, and firing ground-based, inert rockets from a new location. Elements occurring as more than a one-time event include the concurrent use of ordnance delivered by aircraft and ground units, placing TACPs and FOs in a high explosive impact area, firing artillery from drop zones, firing mortars into a small, high-explosive impact area expanding artillery-firing points, firing ground-based, inert rockets into an inert-impact range, and increasing the amount of high explosive and inert rockets fired at Avon Park Air Force Range. Environmental impacts include adverse impacts to threatened and endangered animal species.