Broad discretion is granted at all levels throughout federal land management agencies regarding compliance with the National Environ. Policy Act (NEPA). The authors explored the diversity of procedures employed in NEPA processes across four agencies, the Forest Service, the Nat. Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Army Corps of Eng. There is a lack of consistency not only between, but also within, agencies with regard to how NEPA is implemented. This report focuses on how successful NEPA processes are defined within each agency and what strategies are the most or least beneficial to positive NEPA outcomes. Also identifies unresolved questions about NEPA processes and presents a research strategy for addressing them.

Broad discretion is granted at all levels throughout federal land management agencies regarding compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). We explored the diversity of procedures employed in NEPA processes across four agencies, the USDA Forest Service, The USDI National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, through document review and interviews with chief NEPA compliance officers, interdisciplinary team leaders, team members, and decisionmakers within the agencies with regard to how NEPA is perceived and implemented. This report focuses on how successful NEPA processes are defined within each agency and what strategies are perceived to be the most or least beneficial to positive NEPA outcomes. It also identifies unresolved questions about NEPA processes and presents a research strategy for addressing them.

This article examines how federal agencies and local governments are collaborating in land use planning, with a particular focus on the West. Part I provides a brief overview of local government planning as well as the overarching National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) requirements that apply to federal planning. Part II offers a comparative study of the varied planning approaches across federal agencies, with a particular focus on the role that local governments can play in agency planning. Based on case studies and interviews with federal and local officials, Part III then recommends how to improve federal-local planning efforts so that both federal and local land use planning can be more robust and effective across the landscape. The Article concludes that, while there is an increased awareness of the linkages between federal and local land use planning, and limited examples of emerging collaboration, there is significant room for improvement before we see truly integrated, large landscape planning in the West.

The Service's and the Bureau's land use planning and environmental analysis systems were evaluated and the findings validated using case studies of selected resource development activities to determine the stages at which environmental issues were included and to track the decisionmaking process.