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Infrastructure is the foundation on which industrialized economies are built. As global population has grown and as economies of many regions have expanded, the quantity and scale of infrastructure has increased dramatically. Although some infrastructure is used to move people and commodities, much infrastructure is also used to control natural processes or to extract natural resources. Thus, understanding environmental change necessitates understanding the role of infrastructure in the environment. We review available inventories of infrastructure and current understanding of environmental impacts for different types of infrastructure. We also examine the current status of aging infrastructure and the potential environmental impacts and benefits of infrastructure decommissioning. Finally, we briefly review policies that have facilitated or inhibited infrastructure decommissioning or environmentally oriented modifications of infrastructure operation.

abstract. Since 1988 the United States has closed nearly two dozen major military installations and reclassified them as national wildlife refuges. By presenting a case study of one site of military‐to‐wildlife conversion, this article examines the formation of these places and the implications of casting military practices and environmental conservation as compatible activities. As lands where military and environmental attributes can be perceived as inseparable, military‐to‐wildlife sites exemplify hybrid geographies that challenge dualistic notions of nature and society.

Since 1988, more than 20 US military bases have been redesignated as national wildlife refuges. In order to understand the processes of these military-to-wildlife (M2W) conversions and their implications, I examine three logics that help to produce these particular changes: Biodiversity, Brownfields, and Serendipity. These logics contribute to a broader discourse of ecological militarization that frames military practices as compatible with and contributing to environmental protection.