Foreword: This study shows the evolution of the Army Corps of Engineers’ responsibilities for the natural environment on Army bases. Reflecting both wartime urgencies and peacetime concerns, The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Natural Resources Management on Army Installations, 1941-1987 is a comprehensive overview of the problems the Corps’ natural resources managers faced on Army bases both domestic and overseas during those years . Their concerns included such topics as soil conservation during the emergencies of World War II and the impact of the environmental movement on Army environmental planners in more recent times.
Today’s Army engineers facing multiple questions in the course of their work on installations should find this retrospective analysis useful. The authors, James Arnold and Roberta Wiener, break new ground in tracing the history of environmental work in the context of the military and civilian pressures surrounding the physical development and maintenance of bases.
