NEPA Cumulative Effects Analysis and Documentation

Description

Participants learn how to assess various impact methodologies as to their strengths and weaknesses in supporting the disclosure of cumulative impacts. They learn how to record cumulative impact information in ways that support clear, legally sufficient EAs and EISs.

Objectives

Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to do the following:

  • Develop a working definition of direct, indirect and cumulative impacts and associated compliance with legal minimums
  • Incorporate the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ’s) regulations in a cumulative impact analysis
  • Create efficient Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) and Environmental Assessments (EAs) supported by properly documented information
  • Evaluate the level of detail for past, present and reasonable foreseeable actions and effects
  • Know when to use various analytic techniques

Content

We tailor each workshop to meet the needs of the participants. The basic format of the interactive workshop includes the following components:

  • Understanding the Legal Framework for Effects Analysis
    Learn how the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) standards apply to effects and cumulative effects. Learn what legal standards apply to the NEPA process and its documentation.
  • Establishing the Analysis Boundaries for the Effects of Your Proposal
    Analyze the spatial and temporal bounds for each resource affected by your proposal.
  • Identifying the Past, Present and Reasonably Foreseeable Actions
    Learn to identify the baseline conditions for the relevant resources, ecosystems and human communities. Learn to combine past, present, and future actions with actions from the proposal.
  • Using Available Scientific Tools and Information
    Understand full disclosure of science and methodologies. Identify what methods are most useful in cumulative effects analysis.

Audience

Participants for this training generally include NEPA coordinators, technical specialists, interdisciplinary team(IDT) leaders and members, decisionmakers, and reviewers of NEPA documents.

Process

NEPA Cumulative Effects Analysis and Documentation is an interactive workshop designed with both new and experienced resource managers in mind. For optimal learning, class size is limited to 30 participants.This 2- or 3-day workshop consists of a carefully designed combination of the following components:

  • 60% Lecture
  • 40% Exercises

Materials

Participants receive the following:

  • Comprehensive workshop manual
  • Workshop Resources workbook