TACOMA — The U.S. Army has postponed a series of rocket tests at a Washington base after months of public outreach on the topic.

The News Tribune reported that the Army postponed the first round of its artillery training at Joint Base Lewis-McChord for at least a week.

Base officials say the Army still plans to test its High Mobility Artillery Rocket System at JBLM and will reschedule the three-day exercise. But the base needs to clear more treetops near the firing point before it can shoot the training rounds.

The Army has wanted to conduct this test at JBLM since 2009 to gauge whether the suburban region can live with this type of artillery training. Such exercises normally take place at the Yakima Training Center in central Washington.