Restoring, protecting, and managing Illinois's natural infrastructure—our forests, prairies, wetlands, floodplains, streams, rivers, and shorelines—is the responsibility of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). However, over the last seven years, the IDNR has faced significant budget cuts, which severely impair the department's ability to meet its mandate. This was strikingly illustrated in 2008 by the temporary closures of our state parks. This year, to bridge a significant budget deficit, IDNR employees have been laid off and services cut. At the same time, the IDNR is considering an increase in user fees for state parks and license fees for hunting and fishing. However, while periodic fee increases may provide a budgetary stopgap, they are politically unpopular and, in the long-run, not commensurate with the resource needs of the state. Most appropriately, the department should consider a strategy that could generate financial resources using its principal asset: land. We would propose that the department undertake a careful evaluation of the ecosystem services that might be produced by its floodplains and wetlands and the market by which the credits for these services might be sold. The market would be analogous to the markets that operate for atmospheric sulfur or carbon.

A Best Management Practice (BMP)-based air permitting program has been developed for large dairies in Idaho. General “Permits to Construct” are being issued for the emission of ammonia to all new and existing dairies based on the type of facility, manure handling system, and dominant land application method. A list of BMPs to control ammonia emissions has been developed, and each practice was given a score for its relative control of ammonia emission. Producers then select which BMPs will be installed or implemented on the farm and will be reviewed for compliance by the Idaho Department of Agriculture. Inspections during the summer of 2006 found that 95% of all permitted dairies were in compliance with the Rules for the Control of Ammonia from Dairy Farms, with an average score of 32.9 ± 6.1 points of BMPs, exceeding the 27 points required. Solid separation of manure, corral harrowing, low-pressure irrigation, composting, and rapid manure removal from outdoor lots were found to be the most common BMPs.

Environmental Practice 10:13–19 (2008)

The Evergreen State College served as the site for Models for Forest Protection, a conference co-sponsored by the Graduate Program in Environmental Studies on May 10, 2003. The goal of the conference was to present and evaluate four current models for National Forest protection through a description of the models and presentations of local case studies to illustrate their use and value. Quileute tribal leader Chris E. Morganroth III served as the keynote speaker for the conference. The stories Morganroth tells are “…passed down from the elders to the children of each succeeding generation, speak of the past, of the relationship between the people, other living things, and the land, and of the personal qualities of living things that are valued today.”

This article presents a preliminary case study of the impacts of former gas stations on two mid-sized New Jersey cities: Trenton and Plainfield. Historic research reveals ten former gas stations for every one gas station operating in Trenton and nearly 28 former stations for every one current station in Plainfield. Only 38% of current and former gas stations in Trenton and 23% in Plainfield have any form of environmental record associated with the site. The largest category of site reuse is auto related, to include auto repair, current gas stations, used auto sales, and parking lots: 40% in Trenton and 53% in Plainfield. The largest single reuse category in each city was as unproductive land, with 19% of former Trenton gas stations and 26% of former Plainfield gas stations lying vacant. Despite this, current and former gas stations contribute annual tax revenues of over a half million dollars to Trenton and nearly $1.3 million in Plainfield, indicating that these properties can be redeveloped to provide an important contribution to the economies of these distressed cities. Attention to the environmental issues and development potential of these sites is likely to result in social, environmental, and economic benefit to communities.

Environmental Practice 11:144–152 (2009)

Using author-collected data, this article examines state brownfield programs' activities in relation to liability abatement and financial cost reduction. The findings in this article show that states have very diverse mechanisms in place for the facilitation of the remediation and redevelopment of these properties—many of which have the potential for some serious unanticipated consequences.

Environmental Practice 11:270–284 (2009)

Building on prior research on the housing effects brought on by the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania which found that a lack of water and sewer infrastructure served as a significant barrier to developing new housing needed to alleviate the shortage and resulting high rents in affected communities, this article focuses on the connections between natural gas development, housing need, and provision of water and sewer infrastructure. Through case studies of two water and sewer providers in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, it was found that supplying infrastructure is complicated by the timing and the costs involved with the Chesapeake Bay cleanup, enforcement of the Clean Water Act, and other regulatory hurdles facing suppliers of water and sewer services. These added costs, and their resulting effects on needed housing development, serve as challenges both in areas served by older providers charged with maintaining aging facilities and newer providers who must balance capacity with cost. Both adequate and affordable housing and a healthy environment are vital needs, but at least in the short run, there is a tension between these two needs and their costs for to taxpayers, rate payers, service providers, and developers. Potential solutions for overcoming these challenges are discussed.

Environmental Practice 14:1–10 (2012)

During 2010, Environmental Practice (ENP) focused issues on sustainability, the 40th anniversary of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and water. Last year was an active period for the ENP editorial office at DePaul University. These journal issues were produced by lead editor Dr. James Montgomery in conjunction with Dan Carroll as managing editor and an editorial board with several new members committed to participating in journal operations. The editorial office implemented a revised ENP format for manuscripts and a new cover that has been well received by the readers.

Since receiving the honor of serving as President of the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP), I have taken a good look at what NAEP is doing for our members, what we are proposing for the future, and what is still necessary. In many ways, this analysis is an outgrowth of the NAEP Board of Directors continuing efforts to improve and redefine what NAEP is and what it means to environmental professionals. Having been a part of these tremendous advances, in my new role I am evaluating our efforts from a different perspective to help steer the future of the association.

Much has been written about the effects of climate change on the environment, particularly on the potential effects of climate change on water resources and their management. Despite that plethora of information on the potential effects of climate change on water resources, little has been written to date on the effects of water and land use projects on climate change.

The conservation footprint is the collection of acreage in national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, national forests or other lands managed by the federal government. Their purpose is to maintain biological integrity and diversity (Monaghan, 2009). However, the United States (US) has failed to develop an effective policy for the conservation footprint. This policy failure is the result of many factors (Biber, 2009), three of which are land tenure, self-constitution, and orchestrated regionalism. As a result, the very substance of US conservation is eroding.

Green infrastructure is becoming a prominently used term in planning, policies, and goals at all levels of government and throughout the country. But the term means different things to different people. In fact, there is enough variety in the green infrastructure concepts being bantered about that the definition of green infrastructure is a main tenant of one article (Allen 2012) in this special issue of Environmental Practice. The use of the term can indeed become very confusing among the uninitiated. Green washing is a term used to describe services or products that make an unsubstantiated claim of being green. Thus, it is important, as several of our authors note in this special issue, to be clear about what is meant by green infrastructure so as to not end up with it on the heap of green washing or discarded buzzwords.

The United States Department of Defense has promoted adaptive ecosystem management principles in their land management practices. This application of adaptive ecosystem management in a military environment presents special problems that the author analyzes through a case study of the efforts at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The evaluation reveals the progress and challenges of applying adaptive ecosystem management at military installations. The main areas of progress have been the employment of a multiscalar ecological focus in land management and the development of open dialog with local stakeholders. The primary challenge is the specification of democratic processes and decision rules that meaningfully consider stakeholder input. This challenge reflects the major tension of employing adaptive ecosystem management in the military: the integration of bureaucratic and democratic decision processes. Military installations can alleviate this tension by vertically integrating decision making such that all military stakeholders—including national policy makers affecting local land management—are included in open dialog with local stakeholders, and by clearly specifying the modes and influence of stakeholder input. Failure to do so may force local stakeholders to revert to more adversarial means of influence such as litigation, the threat of litigation, and political intervention.

We examine the spatial and socioeconomic characteristics of a sub-set of brownfields, represented by sites removed from the CERCLIS (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System), or Superfund, inventory. The study area (six Northeastern US states) has a mix of manufacturing, farming and recreational activities, and is densely populated. Environmental concerns, including urban sprawl, are growing. A spatial econometric approach is used. Contrary to expectation, brownfields are not located predominantly in minority-dominated urban core areas, at least in the study area and as far as delisted CERCLIS sites are concerned. Instead, there is a higher incidence of such sites in urban fringe and low-income areas, regardless of racial composition. An implication is that existing remediation activities must be expanded to include areas not currently targeted by policy makers. Such areas should include, for example, not just urban core areas but also those facing urbanization pressures, whether or not they have traditionally been considered urban. The results should be useful in policy formulation in the study area and in other areas where local environmental quality is closely linked to land use decisions, and contribute to more sustainable land use.

Rapid assessment of land use change at scales ranging from local to global can provide timely, accurate information about land suitability, supporting infrastructure, and regulatory compliance so that developers, resource managers, planners, and decision makers can make critical decisions in the face of uncertainty. One area of concern regarding land suitability is the presence, extent, and quality of wetlands. Federal and state wetland protection legislation and local ordinances have effectively sought to reduce the amount of wetlands converted to other uses or to mitigate for unavoidable removal of wetlands. Identification and delineation of existing or potential wetlands, as well as locations that could serve as mitigation areas, is an important process in environmental planning and development. A method of identifying and delineating wetlands using the technique of rapid assessment at regional scales is presented. This method combines high-resolution remote-sensed and secondary data, including thematic maps depicting vegetation, soils, and surface hydrology in a computer-aided geographical information system. The system provides a co-occurrence analysis in which the presence of existing and historic wetlands can be mapped. Areas identified as wetlands can then be compared with detailed, on-site wetland delineations conducted by professional wetland scientists to check the accuracy of the prediction. Using various combinations of data, prediction accuracy ranged between 75% to more than 80% when compared with on-site delineation. While it is conceded that automated rapid assessment will never replace an experienced professional making a site visit, the technique demonstrates a high degree of accuracy in locating and bounding wetland systems in a cost-effective manner. Further, regional screening tools with a high degree of accuracy can substantially limit more costly and time-intensive fieldwork.

We present the study results on the noise impact assessment for the proposed 30-MW wind farms in Lake Erie in Ontario, Canada. This report also reviews noise issues of a wind farm, sound propagation, and the major factors that might affect the sound-propagation and the noise-modeling results. The noise guidelines of Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) extensively are referenced in this assessment. The potential noise receptors have been identified in order to predict the noise-reception level at certain setback distances. WindPRO professional software designed for wind farms is used for the noise-modeling prediction. The noise-impact calculation by WindPRO is based on the ISO 9613-2 (General Acoustics: Attenuation of Sound during Propagation Outdoors—Part 2: General Method of Calculation). Additionally, meteorologic conditions, including the wind profile of the wind farm sites and topography as well as acoustic emission data for the selected wind turbine brand, have been coupled into the model. The detailed octave data at the wind-speed range of 6–11 m/s for each point of reception have been predicted. The results of the noise-impact assessment are demonstrated by noise level and noise contours, and the corresponding compliance of wind turbine noise criteria regulated in Ontario are analyzed for the proposed wind farms.

Environmental Practice 13:101–112 (2011)

Through source separation of biodegradable material, the Divided Waste Processing model, developed by the authors in Brazil, has the potential of diverting up to 85% of domestic waste away from landfills. Because a maximum diversion using traditional models of selective collection stands at 15%, the value put forward here introduces a new paradigm for consideration by municipal administrations. The success of divided processing of biodegradable and inert material depends on satisfactory source separation, which was demonstrated in residential sectors, condominium buildings, and grade schools. The destinations of biodegradable material were animal feed and compost; the composting operation was carried out in the neighborhoods of the test communities and can be accompanied by the residents. The inert material was disposed of by professional waste retailers. The long-term success of the source-separation procedure depends upon constant monitoring. In one of the test communities, the procedure continues to be operational after six years and diverts 67% of the community's waste from the landfill. The model is available for imitation in other test communities around the same city, until the extrapolation to larger sectors—through the application of appropriate managerial strategies—can be accomplished. Several possible strategies are discussed. Outside Brazil, the application will depend on local situations.

Environmental Practice 11:25–31 (2009)

As this issue of Environmental Practice goes to press, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has put mercury from coal-fired plants into front-page news. The battle seems simple on the surface: USEPA seeks to reverse a decision made in December 2000 that Section 112 of the Clean Air Act would govern these emissions.

Political scientist Lynton Keith Caldwell, a principal architect of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) who also is recognized as the “inventor” of the Environmental Impact Statement (or EIS, NEPA's “action forcing” provision), is widely regarded to be one of the twentieth century's most influential scholars in the fields of environmental policy, politics, law, and administration. Indeed, because of his groundbreaking work during the 1960s, he has been credited with founding the new subfield of environmental policy, politics, and administration studies within the wider scope of political science and public administration in the United States. In that period, Robert Bartlett and James Gladden believe that Caldwell “proposed the wholly new field of inquiry now known as environmental policy studies” and that he was “alone in focusing on the distinctive, integrative character of the concept ‘environment’ and its implications for politics, public policy, and public administration.” Harold and Margaret Sprout, the only other political scientists then pursuing a path similar to Caldwell's, share this opinion, writing in 1978, “The long neglect of environmental subjects by academic political scientists [has been] verified … The roster of an interdisciplinary conference, ‘Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth’ (1955), sponsored by the Wenner-Gren and National Science Foundations, included no political scientists. Two years later the conference ‘Future Environments of North America’ sponsored by the Conservation Foundation included only one, Professor Caldwell.”