Avon Park Sentinel Landscape

The U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Defense (DoD), and the Interior (DOI) established the Sentinel Landscapes Partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding in 2013. The Partnership is a nationwide Federal, local and private collaboration dedicated to promoting natural resource sustainability and the preservation of agricultural and conservation land uses in areas surrounding military installations.  Agencies from the three Departments coordinate the Partnership at the national level through the Sentinel Landscapes Federal Coordination Committee (FCC).

The Sentinel Landscapes Partnership seeks to recognize and incentivize landowners to continue maintaining these landscapes in ways that contribute to the nation’s defense.  Where shared interests can be identified within a Landscape, the Partnership coordinates mutually beneficial programs and strategies to preserve, enhance or protect habitat and working lands near military installations in order to reduce, prevent or eliminate restrictions due to incompatible development that inhibit military testing and training.

Since the initiation of the Partnership in 2013, the FCC has designated six locations across the United States as Sentinel Landscapes.