OVERVIEW OF PRINCIPLE LAWS

1. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 1969
   1. Purpose (40 CFR 1500.1):
      1. “NEPA procedures must insure that environmental information is available to public officials and citizens before decisions are made and before actions are taken.”
      2. “The information must be of high quality.”
      3. “Accurate scientific analysis, expert agency comments, and public scrutiny are essential to implementing NEPA.”
      4. “... it is not better documents but better decisions that count. NEPA’s purpose is not to generate paperwork - even excellent paperwork - but to foster excellent action. The NEPA process is intended to help public officials make decisions that are based on understanding of environmental consequences, and take actions that protect, restore, and enhance the environment (emphasis added).”
   2. NEPA is a procedural land management statute.
   3. Action forcing - EA, EIS

2. National Forest Management Act (NFMA), 1976
   1. Purpose and Principles (36 CFR 219.1):
      1. “[Set forth a process for developing, adopting, and revising land and resource management plans for the National Forest System...”
      2. “The resulting plans shall provide for multiple use and sustained yield of goods and services from the National Forest System in a way that maximizes long term net public benefits in an environmentally sound manner.”
      3. “Plans and guides all natural resource management activities...”
   2. Major Issues:
      1. public participation
      2. multiple use
      3. sustained yield and allowable sale quantity (ASQ)
      4. physical and economic suitability
      5. soil and water protection
      6. indicator species & biological diversity
      7. 5-year reforestation
      8. 40-acre clearcut size limitation
      9. economic efficiency

3. Endangered Species Act (ESA), 1973
   1. Purpose (16 USC 1521):
      1. “To provide a means whereby the ecosystem upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved [and] to provide a program for the conservation of such species.”
      2. Congress has provided further direction to federal agencies to use all “methods and procedures which are necessary to bring any endangered species or threatened species to the point at which the measures provided pursuant to this chapter are no longer necessary.”
   2. Prohibits “taking” - broadly defined to include habitat.
   3. No federal action is to jeopardize listed species - Section 7 consultation.