Over the past few decades, military installations have experienced diminishing open space near their borders from suburban sprawl and other developments. Such encroachment pressures limit the ability to conduct mission-essential testing and training. Such development can also destroy or displace native plant and animal species, the result being that military installations become islands of refuge for threatened and endangered species, which can also restrict an installationαs operations. In 2003, DoD created the Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative (REPI) to help address such encroachment pressures.