Protecting land brings all kinds of people together—in our work across the country, we’ve seen creative collaborations between everyone from hikers and birders to utility districts and railroads. But there’s one type of conservationist you might find especially surprising: military bases.

Because their operations are loud and sometimes dangerous, most bases were deliberately built at a distance from large population centers. But as cities and suburbs grow, some are are finding their neighbors too close for comfort: the shrinking space between military and residential areas affects civilians’ quality of life and personnel’s ability to do their jobs.

To address the problem, Congress created the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program (REPI), which aims to buffer bases from development while helping communities protect resources like recreational open space and agricultural land. It’s the kind of win-win approach that’s right up our alley: since the program’s debut, The Trust for Public Land has worked with the army, navy, and the Air Force to safeguard almost 60,000 acres.

For Hawaii residents, who import most of what they eat, preserving farmland is an issue of food security. In light of that, plans to develop hotels and thousands of condominium units along Oahu’s North Shore have raised concerns for decades: not only would development compromise public access to the coast, it would permanently impact agricultural land.

To protect these valuable resources, The Trust for Public Land worked with the U.S. Army to conserve more than a thousand acres of shoreline and agricultural land zoned for resorts. For local communities, the deal safeguards farmland and a connection to the coast—while for the army, it provides a buffer around exercises at the Kahuku Training Area.

“We are very pleased to be able to protect and conserve this land for agricultural use by future generations,” said Col. Richard Fromm, commander of U.S. Army Garrison–Hawaii.

Photo Credit: Matt Artz