A unit of Lasting Forests evolving since March 30, 1999
A Total Forest Management Plan and Wildland Management Decision Support System
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The Legal System

The Trevey seeks to respond in meaningful ways to the intent of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which emerged from public concerns over deteriorating quality of the nation's environment. Seeking balanced change for an increasing population of people who need housing, transportation, energy, and other developments is very difficult. A practical, reasonable approach is needed to protect, restore, use, and enhance the environment a major part of the total human system.

Section 102(2)(c) of NEPA requires an Environmental Impact Statement whenever a proposed action will "significantly affect the quality of the human environment." The intent of the Congress was to "insure the fullest practicable provision of timely public information and understanding of plans and programs with environmental impact, in order to obtain the views of interested parties."

In April, 1996, the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Environmental Security) issued DoD 4715.DD-12 briefly describing some procedures for perparing integrated natural resources management plans for DoD lands. Therein are listed 24 federal laws and regulations influencing the lands and environments of such lands. Compliance with many of these is attempted by the material presented herein.

Virtually every act on a managed property has an effect on the environment. Whether it has an "adverse effect" is a genuine and difficult question that needs to be answered. It is likely that every action has an adverse effect on some aspect of the environment. The NEPA requires that possible adverse effects be considered and that such effects are those that:

1. degrade the quality of the environment,
2. curtail the range of beneficial uses of the environment, and
3. allow long-term environmental goals to be sacrificed to short-term goals.

Every action, such as tree planting, has an effect. It may benefit some species (or users), exclude or be harmful to others. The system of analysis used herein seeks to make these difficult tradeoffs and allocations so as to maximize human benefits from the total system, all for the lowest possible costs. The criteria for what is an "effect", whether it is a good or bad, and whether it is "significant" are all grounded in complex human objectives (discussed in The Trevey section by that name).

Laws and regulations that seem relevant will be linked here.

This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 17, 2000.