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Results from an agency-wide survey of U.S. Forest Service personnel indicate that respondents in our sample engage in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) public involvement processes primarily to accomplish two goals. The most commonly supported goal was to inform and disclose as mandated by the act. The other goal reflected interests in managing agency relationships with various, often adversarial, publics. Respondents expressed variable views about how to conduct public involvement. Most favored informal meetings and/or formal agency-endorsed strategies, though some respondents favored strategies associated with avoiding or containing the public. Qualitative results suggest that variable views concerning how to go about public involvement are related to individual views of planning in general, the public, and administrative structures and processes. The study raises the question of which factors—the beliefs of those conducting public involvement, or the strategies of public involvement employed—most powerfully impact the outcomes of public involvement processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interdisciplinary (ID) teams were created by the US Forest Service in response to environmental legislation. In 2008, we surveyed ID team leaders for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis of 106 recreation-related projects conducted between 2005 and 2008. Results were compared with current workforce data and previous studies of ID team leadership and composition for NEPA assessments. ID teams were large in size and diverse in composition, with representatives of a broad range of disciplines and functional areas. The composition of ID teams may be changing from traditional natural resource management to more discipline-specific expertise. The role of social scientists and other human dimension specialists remains modest, despite the importance of social science questions inherent in recreation projects. Results reflect changes in agency hiring practices in the last 20 years and raise questions about the interdisciplinary nature of US Forest Service ID teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its accompanying regulations provide a spectrum of alternative analytical pathways for federal agencies proposing major actions that might significantly impact the human environment. Although guidance from the President's Council on Environmental Quality suggests the decision to develop an environmental impact statement (EIS), which requires the most rigorous level of analysis, should be based on the likelihood of significant environmental impacts, findings from an Internet survey with US Forest Service project leaders suggest that the decision may more commonly be based on process-related risks, including the threat of litigation, perceived defensibility in court, and the level of public and political interest in the agency's proposed action. An analysis of judicial decisions in NEPA-related litigation reveals that EISs do not appear to be more defensible than environmental assessments in the courts, suggesting that current decisionmaking about NEPA documentation may be misguided, leading to unnecessary project expenditures and delays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The USDA Forest Service is sued more often than any other federal agency under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). This analysis examines Forest Service land management cases initiated from 1989 to 2008 to understand how the agency fared in NEPA cases. Of the 1,064 completed cases, 671 (63.1%) involved a NEPA challenge. The agency won the final outcome of 343 cases (51.1%), lost 176 (26.2%), and settled 152 (22.7%). Case characteristic analyses indicate that case decisions peaked at the end of the 1990s, occurred mostly in the Ninth Circuit, and predominately involved vegetative management, forest planning, roads, recreation, and wildlife management activities. In addition to these general case outcomes, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the 411 cases where a judge or panel of judges specifically ruled on a NEPA challenge. The agency won the NEPA claim in 69.3% of these cases. The Forest Service was most successful litigating supplemental environmental impact statement cases and least successful in categorical exclusion cases. Most challenges to Forest Service NEPA implementation were based on environmental assessments (EAs) and environmental impact statements (EISs). The agency was more likely to win a direct and indirect effects EA challenge and a range of alternatives EIS challenge. Since the Forest Service accounts for a large portion of all NEPA litigation, this research enhances understanding of legal challenges to NEPA's implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eleven executives of the US Forest Service were interviewed to explore the current status and meaning of ecosystem management (EM). The main method of inquiry was open-ended questions, but these questions were complemented by a questionnaire, designed to elicit further conversation about ideas often associated with EM. Participants indicated that EM is still practiced by managers but is seldom used in the agency's environmental speech. The idea that EM is of declining importance to the agency's discourse was also supported by the lack of agreement in participant definitions of EM, where the importance of "scale" and "systems thinking" were the only commonly included ideas in participant definitions of EM. Participants commonly noted the ambiguity and controversy surrounding objectives-oriented components of EM, while process-oriented components were widely accepted by our participants. Our analysis suggests that despite the reduced importance of the term ecosystem management, many of EM's component ideas, particularly those addressing management processes, continue to compete in the agency's broader environmental discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the statutory delegation of authority and responsibility for national forest management by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. By focusing on three primary laws governing national forest management, the article applies a transaction cost approach to assessing and understanding the extent and nature of agency discretion. Observations suggest that specific national forest management crises will prompt modifications of Forest Service authority, coupled with increased constraints on the agency's actions. The transaction costs of congressional inaction in the face of immediate national forest crises appear to exceed those associated with enacting new, more prescriptive legislation, with Congress thereby accepting greater responsibility for the effects of national forest policy choices. However, comprehensive national forest policy reform appears unlikely within this scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest modeling has moved beyond the realm of scientific discovery into the policy arena. The example that motivates this review is the application of models for forest carbon accounting. As negotiations determine the terms under which forest carbon will be accounted, reported, and potentially traded, guidelines and standards are being developed to ensure consistency, accuracy, transparency and verifiability. To date, these guidelines have focused on definitions, data, and reporting, not models. The goal of this paper is to synthesize literature that may inform the development of guidelines for the application of models in areas with policy implications, such as forest carbon accounting. We discuss validation, verification, and evaluation as applied to modeling, and review common components of model evaluation. Peer review, quantitative analysis of model results, and sensitivity analysis are the most widely used approaches to model evaluation. US judicial and legislative perspectives on criteria for model acceptability are summarized. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Uses a policy analysis framework to determine the effect of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service's administrative appeals process in agency decision-making and management. Role of stakeholder's interest in maintaining the appeals process in preventing the reformation of this appeals process; Issue of the public involvement in Forest Service decision-making and how such involvement can be best achieved for the benefit of everyone.

Abstract: The liability United States (U.S.) tree owners face from hazardous trees on their private properties has and continues to undergo a transformation. The traditional common law legal test focused upon whether a tree owner had acted to create a hazardous condition on the property. The modern trend is towards a test that imposes greater responsibility and greater uncertainty on tree owners and arborists. Abandoning the natural/artificial distinction, the modern test, adopted in half the U.S. jurisdictions, imposes general principles of negligence on tree owners. This paper discusses the U.S. legal context for hazardous trees, particularly the impacts on individual tree owners. It closes by addressing various practical means to minimize the risks associated with the modern legal standards, both for susceptible tree owners, and for professionals assessing the subject property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Views on the legal and ethical components of forester licensing in the U.S. Protection of the public from unqualified practitioners through licensure; Enhancement of the professional status of foresters; Link of licensure to an enforceable code of ethics.

Focuses on the implications of the delegation of law-making authority to the U.S. Forest Service in the struggle for national forest management. Incentives for legislatures to pass goal statutes; Discussion of judicial review on agency discretion; Impact of the delegation on the multiple-use mandate of the agency.

In this article the author describes how and why forest carbon policies should be transparent in their goals and why policymakers must face the growth of inconsistencies with environmental programs in the U.S. They describe the terms that permeate the discussions on how forest play a role in carbon markets which include baseline, additionality, leakage and permanence. Also investigated is the adoption of policies to subsidize the production of environmentally beneficial practices on lands.

Comments on the local regulations of private forests in the U.S. Stability of the regulations; Emphasis on ethical and stewardship-based forestry; Rationale for the proliferation of local ordinances.

The author reflects on professional forestry in the U.S. He discusses the potential effects of forestry on the natural environment and the roles that the active management of forests play in meeting various societal goals have been scrutinized. He added that federal agencies began addressing ecosystem management as a new mandate for agency decision-making. Nevertheless, there is no explicit political ratification of ecosystem management for federal land management.

Focuses on the national policy of the Society of American Foresters for forest management in the U.S. Challenges of public land management; Impacts of local-level issues of national import on private forestry practices; Evaluation of competing scientific forestry documents.

Advises members of the Society of American Foresters on how to deal with environmental groups. Recognition of the self-interest of environmental groups; Building of professional and cooperative relationships with selected environmental groups.

We conducted a survey of 3321 Forest Service employees involved in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) followed by five focus groups to investigate agency views of the purpose of agency NEPA processes and their appropriate measures of success. Results suggest the lack of a unified critical task for Forest Service NEPA processes and that employees'' functions relevant to NEPA influence their views of its meaning. Compared to other agency personnel, members of interdisciplinary teams who carry out most day-to-day NEPA-related tasks placed greater emphasis on minimizing negative environmental and social impacts, satisfying multiple stakeholders and avoiding litigation and appeals. Line officers, who typically serve as the decision makers following NEPA processes, placed greatest emphasis on efficient implementation and least emphasis on minimizing impacts. Advisory personnel placed greatest emphasis on effective disclosure of analyses and decision-making. We discuss the structural origins of these differences as well as their implications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We conducted an online survey (n = 3321) followed by five focus groups with Forest Service employees involved in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to explore agency views of how NEPA should be implemented within the agency. We filter these perceptions through the lenses of different functional groups within the agency, each with its own role in agency compliance with NEPA and its own suite of perceived accountabilities. In doing so, we uncover areas of consensus regarding valued practices as well as tensions between employees with different roles in NEPA compliance. General consensus exists regarding the importance of the effective functioning of interdisciplinary teams, but opinions about what constitutes an effective team vary. Findings suggest that NEPA serves as a playing field for competing accountabilities felt by line officers, disciplinary specialists, and advisory personnel within the agency, as each attempts to exert influence over NEPA processes and their outcomes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]