About

The Eastern North Carolina Sentinel Landscape (ENCSL) spans nearly 11 million acres across 33 counties in North Carolina’s Coastal Plain and Sandhills regions. The sentinel landscape is home to seven key military installations and ranges: Fort Roland L. Bragg and Camp Mackall, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Marine Corps Air Stations (MCAS) Cherry Point and New River, and the Dare County Range. North Carolina has the third largest military presence in the country, and Fort Bragg, an ENCSL anchoring installation, is the largest Army installation by population. This sentinel landscape is also home to the F-15E Strike Eagle Formal Training Unit Basic Course, qualifying Airmen in F15E air-to-air and air-to-ground missions at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. Additionally, MCAS Cherry Point, the largest Marine Corps Air Station, is home to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing and Fleet Readiness Center.

Military activity in North Carolina ranks second only to agriculture as the state’s leading economic driver. The ENCSL helps protect the anchoring installations from wildfire, habitat degradation, flooding, and water resource vulnerabilities. To address these encroachment challenges, ENCSL partners design and implement nature-based infrastructure, restore critical floodplains, and promote stewardship of longleaf pine ecosystems. The landscape also collaborates with local governments to address off-base infrastructure vulnerabilities that impact defense-supporting communities. These actions improve soil health, safeguard water quality and supply, enhance biodiversity, and reinforce the long-term sustainability of working lands and defense readiness.