the camp was part of "slta", in british military parlance, or the soltau-lüneburg-training-area. this was named after an accord between the governments of germany, canada and the united kingdom, which was drawn up in 1959, ratified by the bundestag in 1961 and which came into force on 1 july 1963, called the soltau-lüneburg agreement () or sla. the agreement reduced the training area from 48,100 hectares to 34,500 hectares. yet these 345 square kilometres were the only military training area in the western world inhabited by civilians. around 6,500 people lived in the actual training area, with another 15,000 in next-door schneverdingen. since the bundeswehr also used the lüneburg heath for exercises, and semi-annual war games were held by german, dutch and american forces from other nearby bases, the local population was subject to substantial hardships. at times, there were dust clouds over the osterheide rising up to 300 feet and the noise pollution from tank engines went on at all hours. crops were destroyed, woodlands damaged, paths made unusable, ammunitions, oil and other refuse were left behind by training troops. rules that banned mock combat in the immediate surroundings of farms and villages were often ignored. in addition, many serious and even deadly accidents occurred involving tanks and other military vehicles, often left in the road at night with no lights on. locals formed action groups but failed to make any headway, as support from the federal german government was vital in all dealings with the allied forces but was not forthcoming. environmentalists also protested the fact that even after core areas had been excluded from the training grounds, around 1,600 hectares of nature reserve were still "doomed by the agreement to be devastated".