“Only you can prevent forest fires,” but the United States Forest Service (USFS) has determined prevention requires a little more time and money than that.
On June 13, USFS announced a proposal to update the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The agency said it is proposing changes because challenges such as droughts, insect infestation, and diseases, as well as worsening funding, have made it difficult to protect communities and resources from threats such as wildfires.
Resources are increasingly being spent on wildfires, according to the USFS. Wildland fire management funding made up 16 percent of the Forest Services’ annual spending in 1995, whereas in 2018 it reached upwards of 57 percent.
More than 80 million acres of USFS managed land still need to be treated for fire mitigation and disease, USFS said.
Streamlining the process of making environmental decisions may prove to be valuable by increasing efficiency and timeliness.
NEPA requires agencies to analyze the environmental effects of proposed actions before making decisions. This is required in order to “sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the America’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations,” according to the USFS.
USFS said these proposals will allow for timelier decisions to be made by using science-based analysis and learned knowledge since the last NEPA update and modernizing the original policies and practices. NEPA regulations were last updated in 2008.
In January 2018, USFS published an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register and received almost 35,000 comments to consider in the rule development. In addition, the agency conducted regional and national stakeholder roundtable meetings for further public input.
Proposed NEPA changes include new and amended categorical exclusions and “other tools to increase efficiency and improve forest conditions.” The revised rules would also decrease taxpayer costs, according to the USDA.
“We have poured over 10 years of environmental data and have found that in many cases, we do redundant analyses, slowing down important work to protect communities, livelihoods and resources,” said Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen in a released statement.
Amended categorical exclusions
There are three levels of analysis under NEPA: environmental impact statement (EIS); categorical exclusions (CE); and environmental assessment (EA).
CEs are determined by the agency to not have significant impacts on the environment. Agencies will develop a list of CEs when NEPA regulations are developed or revised. Existing NEPA CEs include resurfacing a road or closing an area during a period of high fire danger.
If a proposed action does not qualify for a CE, then an EA will be performed by USFS. If significant environmental impacts are determined, then the agency must develop an EIS.
USFS proposes reordering the Code of Federal Regulations sections to align with the level of NEPA documentation to CE, EA, and EIS. This proposal sequentially addresses general guidance and is a “more logical order” as CEs tend to be the most efficient form of analysis.
On average, an environmental assessment takes 687 days to complete whereas average time for a categorical exclusion is 206 days, according to USFS. This includes only the time to make a decision, not actual days worked on analysis.
The CEs covered in the proposed rule include restoration projects, road and trail management, administrative and recreation site management, and special use authorizations. These proposed CEs would make it faster to process routine activities by months or even years.
The agency also emphasized in the proposal that the primary purpose of an EA is to reach a conclusion of no significant impacts or to determine an EIS is needed. This would move away from treating an EA as a “mini-EIS.”
The proposed rule changing would additionally modify the USFS’s list of actions that would normally require an EIS such as: revising a new land management plan; adding mining operations that authorize surface disturbance on more than 640 acres; and removing actions that would alter undeveloped areas or potential wilderness areas.
Additional rule revisions
The proposal also adds the Determination of NEPA Adequacy (DNA) to the agency’s toolbox. This tool would determine whether a previously completed NEPA analysis could satisfy NEPA’s requirements for a new proposed action. This would increase efficiency by reducing redundant analyses of similar proposed actions with similar impacts.
USFS said these NEPA changes would allow national forests and rangelands to concentrate resources on projects that are more complex or have more public interest. This could also result in more transparency, while providing timelier responses to the public and speeding up decision-making.
“We are committed to doing the work to protect people and infrastructure from catastrophic wildfire,” said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. “With millions of acres in need of treatment, years of costly analysis and delays are not an acceptable solution—especially when data and experience show us we can get this work done with strong environmental protection standards as well as protect communities, livelihoods and resources.”
USFS expects to publish a rule revising the NEPA regulations by summer 2020.
A public commenting period for the proposed rule changes will be open until Aug. 12. Comments may be submitted by email to nepa-procedures-revision@fs.fed.us; mailed to NEPA Services Group, c/o Amy Barker, USDA Forest Service, 125 South State St., Ste. 1705, Salt Lake City, UT 84138; or published online at regulations.gov by searching for docket number FS-2019-0010. — Anna Miller, WLJ editor
