What is happening in this place?

[Boyd]

Working my way through the 1970 aerials, this place stood out as being unusual

You'll have to wait a little while before the 1970's aerials are online, but it shows clearly in 1980

https://boydsmaps.com/#16.00/39.979926/-74.467711/nhap80/0.00/0.00

By the 1990's, it looks like trees or shrubs have been planted there. And if you flip through the years, by 2007 it looks like some kind of nursery. But this land is part of Joint Base MDL, so what's going on there? Some kind of maze for training? Or maybe growing trees to compensate for areas they have cleared?

https://boydsmaps.com/pines/#16/39.979942/-74.466896/pines2020a/0/0/

 

[Gibby]

Shooting ranges?

 

[bobpbx]

Shooting ranges?

Yeah, I think so too. Remember they had to walk back and forth to the targets to see what they hit.

 

[Teegate]

Yea, I got caught out there on Thanksgiving day quite a few years ago. Was escorted out. Who knew bombing practice was going to occur on Thanksgiving day?

 

[Boyd]

How would that work? Are you saying it was for soldiers on the ground with guns, or some kind of aerial activity?

 

[Boyd]

The LIDAR is interesting. Those mounds read out as 5 to 6 feet high above the terrain. What are they for? The berms (?) around the edges are more like 12 feet high.

https://boydsmaps.com/#16.00/39.979873/-74.467107/midatlidar/0.00/0.00

 

[Teegate]

That is the target range. The road there at the bottom is called Range Road. Each range can be reserved and they get a time just like golf.

Someone I know worked at the base and reserved the ranges at 8AM for one hour on Thanksgiving morning. Jess and I met him there and took a road way back behind it looking for an inscribed stone. As soon as we arrived a FFS truck came by and yelled at us. He told us bombing was just about to occur and he told us to leave. When we got back to the range an officer in a car told us to leave and he followed us until we entered state property at Whitesbog.

 

[Boyd]

Cool, thanks! Looks like the targets are 1000 feet away. But why did they carve all those long trenches through the wetlands(?) to the North? Just to clear the land, for drainage or ???

I don't understand how this is related to bombing practice though, they don't also drop bombs there, do they? Is it that they just don't want people anywhere nearby when they are practicing?

 

[Gibby]

Boyd, the range is for long arms (soldiers on the ground). The shooting takes place south to north. The mounds are for targets. The berm is just a backstop for protection and separation of the ranges. They are built from borrow pits which look like trenches. You can see the avenues of fire from the positions. They carry much farther past the actual range itself into the bombing range. Sometimes while at Whitesbogs you can see and hear helicopter gunships practicing. Its very loud considering how far away the aircraft are flying.

 

[rc911]

Working my way through the 1970 aerials, this place stood out as being unusual

View attachment 24015

You'll have to wait a little while before the 1970's aerials are online, but it shows clearly in 1980

https://boydsmaps.com/#16.00/39.979926/-74.467711/nhap80/0.00/0.00

By the 1990's, it looks like trees or shrubs have been planted there. And if you flip through the years, by 2007 it looks like some kind of nursery. But this land is part of Joint Base MDL, so what's going on there? Some kind of maze for training? Or maybe growing trees to compensate for areas they have cleared?

https://boydsmaps.com/pines/#16/39.979942/-74.466896/pines2020a/0/0/

View attachment 24016

This arial photo is of one of the ranges at Dix. Most of the ranges are striped of vegetation but not this one. A couple years ago, my son who is a landscaper and grounds contractor was contacted to clear this range of all trees (scrub pine) with little value including the roots and regrading the whole range. The work would have been difficult with very little financial return. After evaluating it, he never even bid on the job.