Developing a step-by-step process for assessing cumulative effects in the Bureau of Land Management

Many Bureau of Land Management (BLM) planning and management decisions require analysis of the potential direct, indirect, and cumulative environmental effects of proposed actions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). To analyze potential cumulative effects, public land managers must consider the interaction of the effects of a proposed action with the aggregate effects of all other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future human activities. Cumulative effects are often complex, and the USGS and BLM are working together to develop a process that BLM staff can use to strengthen cumulative effects analyses.

Project Goal and Objectives

The BLM and the CEQ have issued policy and guidance on analyzing cumulative effects. In addition, the scientific literature has developed frameworks and best practices for analyzing cumulative effects. Our goal for this project is to build on this past work by developing a clear, step-by-step process that BLM staff can use to analyze potential cumulative effects of proposed actions on federal public lands. We have outlined five objectives to meet this goal:

1. Compile and synthesize policy, guidance, and science for analyzing cumulative effects in the BLM.
2. Assess the nature of recent challenges to BLM cumulative effects analyses in litigation and protests.
3. Evaluate recent BLM NEPA documents to understand current practice for assessing and documenting cumulative effects.
4. Develop a step-by-step process for analyzing cumulative effects in the BLM, test that process by applying it to several actions commonly proposed on BLM lands, and create a suite of ‘worked examples’ of cumulative effects analyses for different types of proposed actions and affected resources.
5. Work with BLM staff to develop a technical reference that describes the process, lays out a standard workflow for analyses, and provides multiple examples.

Approach

We are using document analysis methods to evaluate the nature of recent challenges to BLM cumulative effects analyses and current practices for cumulative effects analysis in the BLM. Our worked examples explore a variety of methods for synthesizing effects from multiple human actions and assessing the resulting cumulative effects on resources.

Anticipated Benefits

Our cumulative effects analysis process will be tailored to help BLM staff find the data, science, and methods they need to understand and assess potential cumulative effects of proposed actions on BLM lands. Stronger cumulative effects analyses can help BLM resource managers better understand potential impacts of their planning and management decisions within and across landscapes, supporting Department of the Interior efforts to manage public lands and resources at the landscape scale.

BLM-USGS Science-Management Partnership

The USGS and BLM are partnering to coproduce practical, actionable science that informs planning, policy, and management decisions on public lands managed by the BLM (see BLM’s coproduction toolkit for more information on coproduction).