Concise Environmental Assessments Conceptual Foundations and Primary Approaches for NEPA Practitioners

THE CAPACITY FOR CONCISE PLANNING AND COMPLIANCE is fundamentally related to the spirit of the National Environmental Policy Act. According to NEPA's implementing regulations, an environmental assessment (EA) is "...a concise public document...that serves to briefly provide sufficient evidence and analysis for determining whether to prepare an environmental impact statement or a finding of no significant impact..." However, across the federal agencies, EAs often exceed 100 pages and take several years to complete.This manual offers guidance on conceptual considerations and suggested primary approaches that build capacity for concise EA processes and documentation, and provides perspectives that a NEPA practitioner can use every day crafting document structure and content. This manual is oriented to an audience of NEPA practitioners whose work serves federal land management agencies, although much of the guidance in this manual also applies more broadly to development of EAs within other federal agencies.