The Apache Longbow–Hellfire Missile Test at Yuma Proving Ground: Ecological Risk Assessment for Tracked Vehicle Movement across Desert Pavement

A multiple stressor risk assessment was conducted at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, as a demonstration of the Military Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (MERAF). The focus was a testing program at Cibola Range that involved an Apache Longbow helicopter firing Hellfire missiles at moving targets, that is, M60-A1 tanks. This article describes the ecological risk assessment, using the MERAF, for the tracked vehicle movement component of the testing program. The principal stressor associated with tracked vehicle movement was soil disturbance, and a resulting, secondary stressor was hydrological change. Water loss to desert wash vegetation was hypothesized to result from increased infiltration and/or evaporation associated with vehicle disturbances to surrounding desert pavement, potentially affecting mule deer as well as vegetation. The simulated exposure of wash vegetation to water loss was quantified using estimates of disturbed land area from a digital orthogonal quarter quadrangle aerial photo and field observations, a 30-m digital elevation model, the flow accumulation feature of ESRI ArcInfo GIS, and a two-step runoff process dependent on soil characteristics and the extent of disturbance. In all simulated scenarios, the absolute amount of water lost increased with distance from the disturbance downslope in the washes; however, the percentage of water lost was greatest in land areas immediately downslope of a disturbance. Potential effects on growth and survival of desert wash trees were quantified by comparing water availability from the hydrologic model to water volume thresholds required for wash trees to survive and persist, derived from a local study. For both the incremental risk of the test program and for the combination of test and pretest disturbances, this demonstration of MERAF Received 23 January 2008; revised manuscript accepted 11 April 2008. Current address for William W. Hargrove: Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center, Southern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Asheville, NC 28804-3454, USA. This article has been authored by a contractor of the U.S. Government under contract DEAC05-00OR22725. Accordingly, the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. Address correspondence to Mark J. Peterson, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6036, USA. E-mail: [email protected]