As broad-scale cumulative effects become increasingly evident across certain landscapes, science points to the need for broader understanding of ecosystem processes, functions, and interrelationships upon which to base our management strategies. The resultant shift to ecosystem-based management has led to landscape assessments much larger in geographic scope than traditional planning efforts. Broad-scale assessments not only provide context for establishing relative priorities within large geographic areas but also provide for stepping down their science findings through finer-scaled assessments that inform equivalent levels of planning and decision making. A systematic step-down process, such as one that was formalized for an innovative regional ecosystem project, allows managers to put local needs into broader perspective, ensuring more efficient investment of limited funding and personnel. This article provides a novel overview of the benefits of a step-down analysis and decision-making approach, describing a tiered assessment strategy linked to existing federal land use planning and decision hierarchies. Two particular assessment tools are summarized—one for mid-scale, or subbasin, assessments (400,000 to 1,000,000 hectares) and one for fine-scale, or watershed, assessments (5,000 to 50,000 hectares)—followed by an example of the use of tiered assessments to focus subsequent management attention.

Once-extensive Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) reefs in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary (HRE) were destroyed almost a century ago as a result of human activities. However, because of improvements in water quality, the potential exists to reintroduce this ecologically extinct species to the ecosystem. For over a decade, New York/New Jersey Baykeeper has conducted oyster restoration activities in support of target ecological goals proposed in the HRE Comprehensive Restoration Plan (CRP). The critical research question is whether existing conditions at a proposed restoration site can actually support long-term Eastern Oyster survival. To determine the feasibility of restoring this native species in Keyport Harbor, New Jersey, juvenile oysters were placed in research field plots, and survivorship and growth were monitored. Data from the first reported oyster restoration research in the New Jersey (NJ) portion of the HRE indicate that oysters could indeed be reintroduced into the ecosystem. After 11 months in situ, research oyster survival rates as high as 60% were observed. Qualitative tissue observations indicated female oysters produced eggs that appeared normal and were ready for spawning. Biodiversity of species collected from the field plots was two- to threefold greater with adult research oysters present, suggesting that oysters increased the density and abundance of other marine species. Sediment deposition patterns indicated that the presence of oysters in support structures may reduce the degree of topographic relief caused by winter storm energies. The research ended abruptly on August 9, 2010, when New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection rescinded the project permit because of concerns that research oysters were beginning to reach New Jersey's market size of 2.5 inches. Although initial data suggest that oysters can survive and reproduce in Raritan Bay and the potential exists to achieve oyster restoration goals included in the CRP, the project also highlights the current lack of agreement between shellfishery regulators and restoration practitioners with respect to oyster reintroduction in waters where shellfish harvesting is currently prohibited. Different shellfish management approaches are used in New England states (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut), where local control is an important management tool, and in Chesapeake Bay states (Maryland and Virginia), where federal involvement is relatively high. Situated between these two distinct shellfish-producing regions, New Jersey and New York have not supported aggressive reestablishment of historic Eastern Oyster populations in the HRE, and unlike adjacent states, have not developed long-term oyster aquaculture plans. The reluctance to support oyster restoration is due to concerns related to human health and ecological questions. Examples of best management practices currently employed in neighboring states offer potential solutions to address regulatory concerns and could form the basis for developing a productive long-term strategy to reestablish Eastern Oysters in the HRE.

Environmental Practice 14:110–129 (2012)

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) have made dramatic technical advances in the past decade. Their use domestically is currently tightly constrained by existing Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations. Within the next few years, the FAA is expected to provide a regulatory framework that allows for a greatly expanded role for UASs in domestic airspace for a wide variety of applications. One of those will be remote sensing for land and natural resource monitoring. While there has recently been a large body of published research on UAS applications to environmental monitoring, in practice, very little has been operationalized by private or public entities to date. In July 2014, Argonne National Laboratory hosted a workshop dedicated to environmental monitoring UAS applications with attendance by representatives from 11 federal agencies as well as academics. The workshop reviewed the UAS state-of-the-art within the federal arena and barriers to broader UAS use. While a number of agencies, the including National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, the United States Geological Survey, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Bureau of Land Management have conducted proof-of-concept UAS demonstrations, typically using surplus Department of Defense equipment, the promise of UAS systems at the moment remains untapped for a variety of reasons. The consensus was, however, that UAS systems will play an increasingly important role in cost-effectively supporting timely natural-resource and land-management monitoring needs.

Environmental Practice 17: 170–177 (2015)

Development and implementation of administrative programs are important steps in the process of change through public law and policy. These programs set the specific mechanisms that will be used to carry out the intent of the law or policy as best an agency can determine. Administrative personnel may involve the general public and stakeholders in program development and implementation in order to improve program design, increasingly used as part of collaborative environmental management strategies. This article examines the use of focus groups as a stakeholder participation method in collaborative program development and implementation processes in two different environmentally-oriented agency programs at the state level in Ohio—the Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund of the Ohio Department of Development, and the Ohio Coastal Resources Management Training Program of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, NOAA, and the Ohio Sea Grant Program. The comparison confirms three categories of benefits in using focus groups: better program development and implementation through more in-depth and nuanced information from stakeholders, an enhanced administrative and civic capacity through development of a shared knowledge base, and an enhanced sense of legitimacy for the program among future program beneficiaries. The comparison also identified some constraints and challenges for using focus groups, including the importance of skilled facilitators with substantive knowledge of the environmental context of the program development process and the skills to resolve contentious stakeholder interactions when the processes are distributive in nature.

Environmental Practice 9:166–178 (2007)

Groundwater and surface water are hydraulically connected in some regions of the world. This type of aquifer system is called a tributary aquifer and can affect flows of adjacent streams. These accretions occur when slowly moving groundwater enters the bottom or side slopes of a stream, providing base flow. In this situation, groundwater becomes surface water. Groundwater that is hydraulically connected to surface water in this manner is called tributary groundwater. Colorado state law requires all water users—of both surface and tributary groundwater—to follow a strict water-right priority system of “first in time, first in right.” This Doctrine of Prior Appropriation, adopted in Colorado in 1876, is rigidly followed today. Since 2003, thousands of tributary groundwater irrigation wells have been curtailed from pumping (legally shut off) due to pumping depletions that reduce stream flow. The impacts to these groundwater users have been serious. Approximately 2,000 wells have been curtailed and will never pump again, and tens of thousands of acres of productive agricultural lands have been reverted to dryland crops or weeds. Surface and tributary groundwater use conflicts are inevitable in locations where rigid water-allocation systems are followed. Nobel Prize winner Eleanor Ostrom points out that common-pool resource management requires collective-choice arrangements if resource users—in this case, surface water and groundwater users—are to develop a stable management plan. This article will show that the Colorado Constitution prohibits such an arrangement and is the reason thousands of tributary groundwater wells have been permanently shut off in the state. By contrast, other states and regions of the world may be able to avoid drastic well curtailments if state or federal laws allow for common-pool resource management.

Environmental Practice 12:304–315 (2010)

Persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic materials are a special group of chemicals and heavy metals that are both synthetic and natural in origin. As pesticides, industrial wastes, and mining byproducts, they have contaminated air, water, and land, and they are biomagnified. Recent national, regional, and international agreements have targeted approximately two dozen contaminants for evaluation, control and elimination from the environment. This paper is a review and evaluation of the current and future impacts of 27 toxic materials in the US-Mexican border region. Because of economic development, population growth, and unique environmental conditions in the region, concern about them should be much higher. Evidence from research conducted within 100 kilometers of the border shows that though the effort is ongoing, there are not enough data upon which to confidently conclude that efforts to reduce contamination have been successful. In a few cases, investigators have detected a reduction of some materials in some biota, but the paucity of information, particularly in Mexico, leaves little hope that the health and welfare of the borderland's occupants will be preserved. The environmental Practitioner can contribute by focusing efforts on cross-border collaboration, on coordinated ecosystem or watershed-based analyses, and on the development of methods to accurately identify sources of contaminants for locations that lack detailed accounting.

Waste reduction is a policy objective being pursued around the world, and many jurisdictions are now considering bag fees as a targeted way to deal with an avoidable waste stream. Seattle City Government passed legislation in July 2008 that placed a $0.20 fee on paper or plastic bags given at the checkout stand of grocery stores, convenience stores, and drugstores. However, an opposition campaign collected enough signatures to send the measure to a public vote in August 2009, where it was turned down. Understanding the lessons learned from this and previous bag-fee legislation will be useful to interested governments. Governments must understand that disposable bags symbolize convenience to many, and many citizens are unaware of the true consequences of handling waste. I conclude that for this breed of policy to be successful, four components are necessary: public education on the issue and the environmental context of the policy; a provision to mitigate financial hardship that may arise from the fee on low-income communities; an alliance with grassroots activist organizations that can help bring the discussion to a wider audience and gain public support; and, finally, a consideration of the macroeconomic conditions.

Environmental Practice 12:66–75 (2010)

An approach to stakeholder involvement known as the Dialogue process has been an integral part of the US Department of Defense Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) Program from its inception. It has provided a means of soliciting stakeholder input before key decisions are made. The projects developed under the ACWA Program are characterized as major federal actions and therefore also must meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). One of these is the requirement for public participation in the environmental impact assessment process. This case study describes the ACWA Dialogue and NEPA processes, and examines their relationship in the implementation of the ACWA Program. The examination suggests that involving the public at the beginning of a program through a Dialogue-like process can introduce environmental considerations early in the project development process and contribute to the development of a more informed public. These factors improve the overall efficacy of public participation, strengthening the link between project development and environmental assessment in a manner consistent with the original intent of NEPA.

The final Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule (40 CFR 98) was published in the Federal Register on October 30, 2009. As the initial reporting due date approaches in the summer of 2011, potentially affected greenhouse gas (GHG) source facilities are in the process of determining applicability to the standard and implementing the required monitoring and record-keeping requirements. Environmental professionals around the United States are focused on researching the details of their specific GHG regulated source category and are attempting to confirm that the regulation is not applicable to their industry and/or operating facilities. These professionals are typically required to provide ongoing regulatory compliance support to their individual company or group of clients. Performing the GHG applicability determination is a critical step to documenting overall compliance with current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. Based on the level of analysis and calculations required to determine applicability and the anticipated EPA updates to bring in additional source categories, this article is intended to provide environmental professionals with valuable regulatory information on one of the more significant environmental regulations promulgated in the last 10 years.

Environmental Practice 13:122–129 (2011)

This special issue of Environmental Practice provides an overview of the major concepts useful for redeveloping brownfields, and the Editorial Office sincerely hopes you find it of interest. We are grateful to the many authors, reviewers, and editorial assistants who made this venture possible.

Natural resource negotiation often involves multiple parties with overlapping interests and issues that can provide opportunities for mutually beneficial solutions. These opportunities can be missed, however, if negotiators are unable to comprehend the facts of a negotiation, understand the interests of other parties, or accurately evaluate the options that increase the size of the negotiation pie. Through structured personal interviews with more than 60 representatives from seven different hydropower negotiations, respondents identified core competencies that help negotiators succeed at accurately comprehending the facts of a negotiation, comprehending the interests of other parties, and fully understanding the available options and alternatives. We categorized those core competencies into three dimensions of negotiation—interpersonal, organizational, and operational.

This article analyzes the environmental crisis in Ghana and what contributions religious resources from the intellectual traditions of African Traditional Religion can make towards addressing it. This study was based on an extensive review and interpretation of existing textual materials on the subject matter, supplemented by general field observations. It identified the following: the environmental problem in Ghana has national and international root causes; the modern environmental management model employed in Ghana lacks resources, in terms of finance, personnel, and other associated logistics, rendering it inefficient. This article warns that the cumulative effect of environmental degradation is a boomerang, and suggests that the modern and traditional methods of environmental conservation be merged to form a more efficient system. This research is important because its findings may contribute to the development of a more efficient model for conserving and protecting Ghana’s environment. It also contributes to local and global cultural theories on the conservation and protection of the environment.

Environmental Practice 18: 137–147 (2016)

The year was 1970. About this time, I had been designated chairman of Earth Day for my high school, although that was still many months away. One of my friends, Keith, was a member of the local John Birch society, which maintained that Earth Day was part of a global communist conspiracy to undermine American civil liberties. I countered that Earth Day was being sponsored by our own powerful Senator Scoop Jackson (D-WA), to which Keith simply replied that Jackson was also part of the grand conspiracy. Neither of us changed each other's minds, but surprisingly, we managed to remain friends.

Belarus is an Eastern European country previously known as a republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In 1991, Belarus established its independence after the dissolution of the USSR. The current political state still retains many of the pre-dissolution social and political positions; the country still maintains many of its old ways of life.

Governments and managers have generally conducted inadequate cost-benefit analysis (CBA) by failing to incorporate environmental impact costs. This is not a straightforward task, owing to the intangibility, in monetary terms, of most environmental goods and services. By means of a theoretical example, we present a practical approach to correct cost-benefit analysis for environmental externalities that do not need natural resource valuations. The theoretical example is based on ventures that potentially pollute river waters. However, we think that the methodological approach presented here may be used to internalize (in monetary terms) the costs of negative external impacts on the environment, which may result from any type of venture or project.

Green infrastructure planning at the community level is explored through a description of the development and implementation of a natural resources plan for the Village of Glenview, a Chicago suburb. The plan grew from previous investments in natural resources, such as zoning and ordinance protection and the redevelopment of a 1,121-acre naval air station in the village. Projects originating from the plan have included streambank stabilizations, detention basin naturalizations, rain gardens, remeandering and naturalization of a reach of the West Fork of the North Branch of the Chicago River, and public outreach efforts. Keys to the plan's creation and implementation to date include official incorporation of a politically sophisticated Natural Resources Commission into local government, thorough ecological assessment of existing natural resources, grant funding and political viability due to the coincidence of habitat- and water-quality improvement goals, consistency with regional plans, peer recognition, and efforts to secure public acceptance through private landowner incentives, volunteer workdays, and communications campaigns. Barriers to full implementation include diverse public and private ownership of desirable natural resources, limited funding for natural resources capital projects, and an implementation plan not officially adopted by the village board of trustees.

Environmental Practice 14:1–10 (2012)

Two Swedish road projects were studied to find ways to shorten the time spent in the road planning process. The results indicated that the road projects developed very differently. One planning project developed rather smoothly, while the other received an escalating flood of letters. Concerns about the environment and landscape were present in the majority of these letters, pointing to the importance of involving the expertise of landscape planners or environmentalists in the management of road development projects. This article's conclusion stresses the importance of inviting early submission of viewpoints and of responding to people's questions in order to achieve acceptance of a project; it also stresses the significance of keeping communication open with affected sectors of the public from the very beginning of a project.

As the use of collaborative, consensus-based decisionmaking procedures increases, so, too, do the obstacles to using these processes. For example, many managers and decision makers are now encountering limits on the participation in such processes by key stakeholder groups. Indeed, perhaps one of the most difficult challenges an agency faces in undertaking a consensus process is in securing participation by appropriate stakeholders. In order to more effectively sponsor and manage collaborative decisionmaking processes, an understanding of the incentives for stakeholder participation is critical. A recent study of negotiated rulemaking at the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) assessed participants' incentives for participation, which revolve around four major themes: (1) resources required for participation, (2) input into final decision and response to comments, (3) use of technical data, and (4) representation and communication issues. Keeping these incentives in mind when initiating a collaborative regulatory process may assist managers and sponsors in ensuring inclusion and participation by key participants.