Evaluation of Low Water Crossings (LWC) On Military Installations: Optimization of Land Use.

Protecting natural resources while maintaining quality military training and testing areas are critical to sustaining military installations. As part of being good stewards of land resources is the control of erosion and sedimentation within waters of the US. Many installation land managers have implemented the use of Low Water Crossings (LWC) as a common best management practice (BMP) to address excessive erosion along fording areas within training lands. Both the technologies and applied designs for LWCs used on military installations were developed primarily for agricultural lands which are not subjected to the frequency, duration, and loads as one commonly finds on installations. This has resulted in under- and over-designed LWCs across the US. Frequently, a “cookie cutter” approach towards design and installation of LWCs is taken; this can lead to negative consequences. Commonly, under-designed LWCs are sources of hydrological erosion which can degrade stream systems, contribute to sedimentation, impact aquatic TES and become a safety hazard to training soldiers. A comprehensive evaluation of current and proposed LWCs has been conducted to determine suitability for military training lands. This presentation will provide results and lessons learned from of our efforts to evaluate LWCs across multiple installations.