Supports Military Readiness by protecting its biological resources and natural infrastructure by providing policy, guidance, and oversight for almost 27 million acres of military land, air, and water resources managed by DoW.

The Legacy Program is a 33-year-old strategic and competitive funding program that has served as a DoW conservation program leader and an incubator of innovative DoW land management strategies and installation priorities. The mission of the Legacy Program is to provide coordinated, Department wide and partnership-based integration of military mission readiness with the conservation of irreplaceable natural and cultural resources.

As stewards of the Nation's largest inventory of federally managed historic properties, DoW strives to maintain, promote, and interpret the cultural resources it manages, both to support the defense mission and to preserve the country's military heritage for future generations.

Through the DoW American Indian and Alaska Native instructions and policies, the Department is committed to respecting the sovereignty of Indian nations, the rights of self-determination and self-governance, government-to-government relations, and fulfilling federal trust responsibilities.

The occurrence of well-managed wildland fire on the DoW landscape plays a significant role in the structure and function of the diverse ecosystems and habitats, the accessibility of training lands for conducting training and testing missions, and the safe, effective management of wildfires.

DoW maintains readiness and sustains mission assurance (MA) by establishing and maintaining a comprehensive, all-hazards Emergency Management (EM) Program. Additionally, the DoW Fire & Emergency Services (F&ES) program ensure the continued function and resilience of personnel, equipment, facilities, infrastructure, and logistics chains; serve as the first line of defense when catastrophes threaten installation personnel, their families, and DoW critical bases of operation.