ANG to purchase buffer acreage around Camp Shelby

The Army National Guard is scheduled to purchase more than 1,500 acres in South Mississippi around the Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center to establish a buffer zone to limit the effects of commercial encroachment and in support of the base’s mission. The announcement will be made Monday, Dec. 30, at the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum at 1 p.m. The 1,522-acre purchase, owned by Weyerhauser, will be obtained through the Defense Department’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program. Camp Shelby is the largest reserve component training site in the United States. A portion of the property will be registered as carbon offset credits through the state of California's carbon market. The project is expected to generate an estimated $10.5 million which will be utilized for future Army Compatible Use Buffer projects at Camp Shelby. Source: Camp Shelby JFTC media release, Dec. 27, 2013; Previously in Gulf Coast Aerospace Corridor, Dec. 13. [Gulf Coast Note: Similar land purchases through REPI have occurred in NW Florida around NAS Whiting Field and Eglin AFB.]