quarter-century. “Our goal has
always been to make the endangered species at Fort Hood invisible to the soldier training on the
installation. Now, with the help
of the Fish and Wildlife Service,
the next version of the training
maps does exactly that,” said Tim
Buchanan, Fort Hood’s chief of
natural and cultural resources.
The fort additionally opened
itself to scientists from academia
and government agencies to conduct research. Thanks to Fort
Hood’s cooperative approach,
the science available to advance
conservation efforts for the warbler and vireo, as well as for many
other species found at Fort Hood,
has flourished. For instance, the
use of miniature video cameras
to monitor vireo nests revealed
that Texas rat snakes are significant predators of vireos on the
nest. Tanks and artillery fire are
hard on the land. Managing for
healthy, native habitat on the fort
is an essential task for terrain that
regularly accommodates a high
volume of military exercises.
“The service greatly values
our partnership with Fort Hood.
They have gone above and
beyond to work with us and to
address the conservation needs
of the golden-cheeked warbler
and black-capped vireo,” said
Omar Bocanegra, a biologist with
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice. “Thanks to the cooperative
relationship between the service
shrubby oak mottes, where they
build intricate hanging-cup nests
fastened with spider silk. They
eat insects and spiders gleaned
from leaves and tree branches,
sometimes deftly hovering while
doing so.
The vireo was listed as endangered in 1987. Two years later,
surveys of the bird revealed 143
males living on Fort Hood. Their
numbers grew, and in the 1990s,
the population on Fort Hood was
too large to accurately assess. A
new method of measuring bird
numbers came into use about
2005; it revealed an upward
trend, with an estimated 7,500
male black-capped vireos living
on Fort Hood by 2014. The U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service credits
these accomplishments to its
active conservation partnership
with Fort Hood.
The golden-cheeked warbler
has seen similar rises. Just this
past year, biologists estimated
that 7,382 male warblers were
on the fort grounds. Indeed,
Fort Hood is home to the largest
known population of these warblers and vireos. This is particularly noteworthy considering that
most of the vireo’s summer range
and all of the warbler’s summer
range exists in Texas, where 97
percent of land ownership is in
private hands.
Fort Hood has been a willing
and eager partner in conservation
of these rare birds for almost a