The Apache Longbow–Hellfire Missile Test at Yuma Proving Ground: Introduction and Problem Formulation for a Multiple Stressor Risk Assessment

Abstract

An ecological risk assessment was conducted at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, as a demonstration of the Military Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (MERAF). The focus of the assessment was a testing program at the Cibola Range, which involved an Apache Longbow helicopter firing Hellfire missiles at moving targets, that is, M60-A1 tanks. The problem formulation for the assessment included conceptual models for three component activities of the test, helicopter overflight, missile firing, and tracked vehicle movement, and two ecological endpoint entities, woody desert wash communities and desert mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus crooki) populations. An activity-specific risk assessment framework was available to provide guidance for assessing risks associated with aircraft overflights. Key environmental features of the assessment area include barren desert pavement and tree-lined desert washes. The primary stressors associated with helicopter overflights were sound and the view of the aircraft. The primary stressor associated with Hellfire missile firing was sound. The principal stressor associated with tracked vehicle movement was soil disturbance, and a resulting, secondary stressor was hydrological change. Water loss to desert washes and wash vegetation was expected to result from increased ponding, infiltration, and/or evaporation associated with disturbances to desert pavement. A Apache Longbow-Hellfire Missile Test: Multiple Stressor Risk Assessment plan for estimating integrated risks from the three military activities was included in the problem formulation.

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

“…The density of deer in this area was assumed to be 0.56 deer per km 2 (or one deer per 179,000 m 2 ) (Efroymson et al 2008a, this issue), so even a loss of deer proportional to the area showing loss of vegetation would result in no deer being lost.…”

The Apache Longbow–Hellfire Missile Test at Yuma Proving Ground: Ecological Risk Assessment for Helicopter Overflight

“…This article is one of a series of articles describing an ecological risk assessment for a military activity at YPG (see Efroymson et al 2008all this issue). The Apache Longbow-Hellfire missile test is described in Efroymson et al (2001b) and Efroymson et al (2008) in this issue of Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, and includes missile firing and tracked vehicle movement as well as helicopter overflight. Sound from missile detonations and explosions is treated in Jones et al (2008, this issue).…”

Airborne LiDAR and Aerial Imagery to Assess Potential Burrow Locations for the Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii)

“…Population declines have continued in four of five designated recovery areas, in part because of reduced breeding rates, low density of adults, and habitat loss and fragmentation. Fragmentation is often from intentional human activity [3] such as military activity/training [4][5][6][7], pipelines and energy-transmission corridors [8], utility-scale solar projects [9], and proximity to urban centers [10,11].…”