Environmental Practice - Current Issue

Volume 10 Issue 03

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Environmental Practice, Volume 10 Issue 03

Environmental Practice provides a multidisciplinary forum for authoritative discussion and analysis of issues of wide interest to the international community of environmental professionals, with the intent of developing innovative solutions to environmental problems for public policy implementation, professional practice, or both. Peer-reviewed original research papers, environmental reviews, and commentaries, along with news articles, book reviews, and points of view, link findings in science and technology with issues of public policy, health, environmental quality, law, political economy, management, and the appropriate standards for expertise.

ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: Proximate Causation and the No Action Alternative Trajectory in Cumulative Effects Analysis

Research Articles
Jerry Magee, Roger Nesbit,
Environmental Practice, Volume 10 Issue 03 , pp 107-115

Abstract
From the time it appeared in the 1978 regulations implementing the United States' National Environmental Policy Act, agencies have struggled with the concept of cumulative impacts in their environmental analyses. Although the regulations touch on every aspect of environmental impact analysis, they merely define cumulative impacts and then refer to them only in other definitions in the Terminology section. Agencies have become fairly adept at analyzing direct and indirect effects, but cumulative impacts have posed more difficult methodological problems, giving rise to a host of legal challenges. The courts have attempted to sort out what is required for adequate cumulative impact analysis, causing agencies to reactively develop agency-specific, and often complex, methodologies. This article relates the basic concepts of cumulative impact assessment to emerging case law, focusing on US federal land management issues. From this basis, it proposes a novel approach to cumulative effects analysis that (1) uses the doctrine of proximate cause from tort law to ensure that there is a reasonable probability that a proposal will affect a resource of concern before undertaking analysis of other effects on that resource, and (2) uses the No Action Alternative's trajectory of resource conditions (which incorporates the effects of other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions) as the baseline for assessing an action's incremental effects. The proposed six-step process integrates effects analysis by describing the overall effects of the No Action Alternative, altered by an action's direct and indirect (or incremental) effects, as the cumulative effect on a particular resource of concern.

RESEARCH ARTICLE: Occurrence and Distribution of Mammals on the McChord Air Force Base, Washington

Research Articles
Sanders Freed, Kelly McAllister,
Environmental Practice, Volume 10 Issue 03 , pp 116-124

Abstract
In the fall of 2005 and spring and summer of 2006, The Nature Conservancy, in cooperation with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Cascadia Research Collective, conducted a mammal inventory on McChord Air Force Base (MAFB). The military has a vested interest in maintaining habitat and species by congressional mandate and the corresponding burden of recovery. Six major habitat types were designated for trap-line transects; additional directed efforts were employed to target specific species. The resulting effort documented the presence of 36 species, eight of which were bats. Documented species of note include the western gray squirrel (Sciurus griseus), a state species, detected by hair-snag tubes; long-eared myotis (Myotis evotis); long-legged myotis (Myotis volans); and the Yuma myotis (Myotis yumanensis). Mammalian diversity on MAFB was influenced by three factors: water (either open water or wetland habitat); large, contiguous tracts of undeveloped acreage; and continuity with Fort Lewis, a large military base immediately adjacent to MAFB. Additionally, Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius), an invasive woody shrub, was found to support limited mammalian diversity, with the fewest species documented in this habitat type. Given the impending changes due to development, ownership, and climate, this survey will be useful to managers as a baseline for focused species efforts and future comparisons.

Getting the Public Interested in the Public Interest: Collaborative Environmental Problem Solving in the Puget Sound Region

News
Terry Grytness,
Environmental Practice, Volume 10 Issue 03 , pp 125-127

Abstract

American Environmental Policy, 1990–2006: Beyond Gridlock . C.M. Klyza and D. Sousa. 2008. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 385 pp. $28 paperback.

Book Reviews
Kristan Cockerill,
Environmental Practice, Volume 10 Issue 03 , pp 128-129

Abstract

The World's Water 2006–2007: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources . P. H. Gleick, H. Cooley, D. Katz, E. Lee, J. Morrison, M. Palaniappan, A. Samulon, and G. H. Wolff. 2006. Island Press, Washington, DC. 368 pp. $70 cloth, $37.50 paperback.

Book Reviews
Douglas B. Johnson,
Environmental Practice, Volume 10 Issue 03 , pp 129-129

Abstract

Water War in the Klamath Basin: Macho Law, Combat Biology, and Dirty Politics . Holly D. Doremus and A. Dan Tarlock. 2008. Island Press, Washington, DC. 260 pp. $60 hardcover, $24 paperback.

Book Reviews
Cheri Lucas Jennings,
Environmental Practice, Volume 10 Issue 03 , pp 130-131

Abstract

From Where Life Flows: The Local Knowledge and Politics of Water in the Andes. Frode F. Jacobsen and John-Andrew McNeish, eds. 2006. Tapir Academic Press, Trondheim. 151 pp. $77.00 paperback.

Book Reviews
José Suárez-Torres,
Environmental Practice, Volume 10 Issue 03 , pp 131-133

Abstract

CONTRIBUTORS

Miscellaneous

Environmental Practice, Volume 10 Issue 03 , pp 134-136

Abstract

EDITORIAL: Greetings from the Incoming Editors-in-Chief

Editorial
Kelly Tzoumis, Jim Montgomery,
Environmental Practice, Volume 10 Issue 03 , pp 89-89

Abstract

PERSPECTIVE: What Is to Be Done? A Modest Proposal to Address Global Warming

Research Articles
Leonard Robins, Robert T. Holt,
Environmental Practice, Volume 10 Issue 03 , pp 90-91

Abstract

PERSPECTIVE: Shifting Our Horizon: The Art of War versus Stewardship

Research Articles
Ron Deverman,
Environmental Practice, Volume 10 Issue 03 , pp 92-93

Abstract

RESEARCH ARTICLE: Rochester's Healthy Home: A Community-Based Innovation to Promote Environmental Health Action

Research Articles
Katrina Smith Korfmacher, Kate Kuholski,
Environmental Practice, Volume 10 Issue 03 , pp 94-106

Abstract
Environmental hazards in the home can contribute significantly to disease. These hazards disproportionately affect low-income, urban, and minority children. Childhood lead poisoning and asthma are prime examples of health concerns to which poor housing conditions may contribute. A community-academic partnership in Rochester, New York, created a model Healthy Home, an interactive museum in a typical city home, to help residents, property owners, contractors, and community groups reduce environmental hazards. The Healthy Home project educates visitors about home environmental health hazards, demonstrates low-cost methods for reducing home hazards, and helps visitors develop individualized strategies for action. In its first year of operation, over 700 people visited the Healthy Home. Evaluation surveys indicate that the Healthy Home experience motivated visitors to take action to reduce environmental hazards in their homes. Follow-up phone interviews indicate that most visitors took some action to reduce home environmental hazards. The Healthy Home has established a diverse Advisory Council to share its messages more broadly, invite input into future directions, and recruit visitors. This article presents experiences from the Healthy Home's first year, highlighting the partnership principles that guided its development and lessons learned from the process.