United States Department of Agriculture

Forest Service

Title of Project

Environmental Assessment

Resource Report

Name Ranger District, Name National Forest, Name County, State

Month Year

For More Information Contact:

Name

District or Forest

Address

NOTE: Blue text consists of instructions, items to change related to your project, and guidance (including handbook direction). Please delete all blue text instructions, and change residual blue text you need to retain to black. There is no Council of Environmental Quality or Forest Service requirements for specialist reports. In this template, redundant or superfluous sections such as: Table of Contents, Summary, Background, Affected Environment, List of Document Preparers, Decision Framework, Public Involvement Opportunities, Irreversible and Irretrievable Commitment of Resources, and Comparison of Alternatives have intentionally been left out.

Introduction

Briefly summarize the proposed action and alternatives to be analyzed in this report. Spell out any components that are directly relevant to the impact analysis for your resource. Reference the EA for full descriptions. Be sure to update this report if the proposed action or alternatives are updated in the EA. Make sure to consider any environmental protection measures, such as design features or “criteria” that are part of the proposal. Note that any such features must be approved for analysis by the responsible official.

Concisely state the need for the project.

Relevant Direction

Briefly describe only the most relevant laws, regulations, directives – including Forest Plan direction, and policy directly relevant to this specific project for your resource.

Environmental Consequences

This section summarizes the potential impacts of the proposed action and alternatives for each impacted resource. Resources that were not impacted and therefore not further analyzed include: [list].

Impacts (direct, indirect, and cumulative) of alternatives may be discussed together or separately. If potential effects of several alternatives are the same, the effects discussion may describe those effects as being the same and focus on describing where effects differ.

An Affected Environment Section is not required in a resource report; however, some information regarding the affected environment is necessary. The information necessary is in the need for action section of the introduction, where the difference between the existing condition of the project site and the desired condition of the project site are disclosed. Description of the affected environment may be necessary to understanding the effects in this section disclosing the Environmental Consequences.

Clearly explain cause-effect relationships. Leaping from notation of the data to a conclusion is not adequate. Discuss how the data was evaluated such that a clear logic path from the data to the conclusion is apparent. Include a description of critical assumptions and methodology used.

Proposed Action

Describe the environmental impacts of your proposed action. Your description should provide enough information to support a determination to either prepare an environmental impact statement or finding of no significant impact. The purpose of an EA resource report is to evaluate impacts in the context of NEPA significance. This evaluation requires consideration of the 10 significance criteria below. Note that some of these criteria are specific to particular resources and may not be relevant to all resource reports. Delete those that do not apply. This discussion must be project-specific.

In order to tie directly to the evaluation of significance, the report should describe the impacts of the proposed action and any alternatives in terms of context (society as a whole (human, national), the affected region, the affected interests, and the locality) and intensity as described in the ten criteria below.

1.  Beneficial and adverse impacts. A significant effect may exist even if we can show that on balance the effect will be beneficial. A beneficial effect may not be used to offset the significance of an adverse effect. This is a good place to discuss short-term v. long-term effects.

2.  The degree to which the proposed action affects public health or safety. Describe anticipated effects to public health and safety and related precautionary measures, including traffic controls, signing, public notices of activity, law enforcement, etc.

3.  Unique characteristics of the geographic area. Be sure to disclose proximity to historic or cultural resources, parklands, prime farmlands, wetlands, wild and scenic rivers, or ecologically critical areas. Effects to any of these unique characteristics should be considered for their significance.

4.  The degree to which the effects on the human environment are likely to be highly controversial. Acknowledge the controversy that does exist, if any, and explain whether it is controversy about the anticipated effects of the action or controversy about the action itself (personal values). If there is genuine, scientifically based controversy regarding the effects of the action, an EIS may be necessary.

5.  The degree to which the possible effects on the human environment are highly uncertain or involve unique or unknown risks. Disclose information regarding our agency’s experience with same or similar actions under same or similar circumstances. Do we really know what is going to happen, or are we plowing new ground with this action? If we are plowing new ground, an EIS may be necessary.

6.  The degree to which the action may establish a precedent for future actions with significant effects or represents a decision in principle about a future consideration. Is this action necessarily going to lead to another future action or actions that will have significant effects either individually or in combination with each other or with this action? A single action may not be analyzed as multiple actions for the purpose of avoiding disclosure of significant effects.

7.  Whether the action is related to other actions with individually insignificant but cumulatively significant impacts. Significance exists if it is reasonable to anticipate a cumulatively significant impact on the environment. Be sure to disclose cumulative effects for your resource if it is affected by the action and is germane to the decision. Do not merely list other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions.

8.  The degree to which the action may adversely affect districts, sites, highways, structures, or objects listed in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, or may cause loss or destruction of significant scientific, cultural, or historical resources. (For cultural report only).

9.  The degree to which the action may adversely affect an endangered or threatened species or its habitat that has been determined to be critical under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. (For TE report only).

10.  Whether the action threatens a violation of Federal, State, or local law or other requirements imposed for the protection of the environment. This includes any analysis related to conformance with the Forest Plan. Discussion of compliance with other laws or requirements as appropriate for the action, including Environmental Justice, should be included here.

In addition to the significance criteria above, include an analysis of the direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts on your resource if identified as an issue for analysis by the responsible official.

Other Alternatives

Follow the same format as for the proposed action.

Public Involvement and Tribal Consultation

List Tribal, Federal, State, and local agencies, and individuals with whom the Forest Service engaged specific to preparation of this report.

References Cited

Be sure that everything you reference in your previous text has a corresponding citation here and that you have an electronic copy for your files.

This is the reference style. It is designed to have your first line left justified and all hanging text indented five spaces.

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