Tailored Workshops

Judith Lee has been successfully and effectively conducting powerful NEPA consulting, analysis, documentation, and training since 1988, and as President of Environmental Planning Strategies, Inc., since 1994. All workshops, manuals, and materials are specifically tailored to the agency, the type of planning needed, and the level of expertise of the participants, using a combination of lecture, discussion, and case study team work. Each workshop is dynamic and emphasizes practical process and real case studies, using methods that focus on the learning strategies of busy professionals. As a former government employee, her workshops emphasize NEPA compliance within inherently governmental responsibilities and decision making processes and authorities of each agency.

Her satisfied NEPA workshop clients include U.S. EPA Headquarters and Regions; Federal Highway Administration/State DOTs across the country; Bureau of Indian Affairs; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Civil Engineering and Regulatory; USDA APHIS Wildlife Services; USDA Rural Development; Illinois Department of Natural Resources; NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Federal Aviation Administration; US Forest Service; Department of Defense, US Navy, US Marines, and US Air Force; Department of Energy; Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and representatives from US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Federal Transit Authority, US Coast Guard, Office of Surface Mining, US Army, and many others.

Please select from the following workshops the ones which will work best for you. Please contact Ms. Lee to tailor a workshop for your special needs!

With GSA Schedule Contract GS-10F0046R, you can purchase your workshop with minimal effort. Call Judith to ask how!

1. Powerful Planning Using NEPA and the Facilitated Planning Approach
2. The National Environmental Policy Act: A Dialogue of Understanding
3. Conducting and Documenting Powerful NEPA Cumulative Impact Analyses
4. Developing and Implementing Effective NEPA Project and Program Planning
5. Conducting Powerful NEPA Document Reviews
6. Powerful Planning Focusing on NEPA Purpose and Need
7. Understanding the Regulatory Permitting Process of Section 404 of the CWA
8. Applying OFFP Inherently Governmental Function Requirements to NEPA

1. Powerful Planning Using NEPA and the Facilitated Planning Approach

This interactive workshop, individually tailored for the Federal/state agency requesting training, focuses on conducting effective and practical NEPA planning processes and impact analyses using the proven NEPA Facilitated Planning Approach, ensuring complete and effective planning strategies and environmental impact analyses. The emphasis on practical planning processes and strategies, based on powerful and effective planning approaches, includes CEQ regulations and guidance, the agency NEPA procedures, court decisions and precedents, and effective planning tools and processes. This workshop can be tailored to beginner and advanced NEPA practitioners, reviewers, and managers for the specific agency, and can be effectively used to improve interdisciplinary working relationships within the agency and with cooperating and commenting agencies. The workshop uses a combination of lecture, facilitated discussion, and "real life" case studies, tailored to each individual audience, to ensure that participants learn NEPA and effective methods of environmental planning and document preparation that can be used directly in their work.

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2. The National Environmental Policy Act: A Dialogue of Understanding

This highly consultative and tailored workshop is intended for agency managers and advanced NEPA practitioners from several agencies to work together in a facilitated environment to create a common language and understanding of the legal and practical application of NEPA and the CEQ implementing regulations; to better understand the policies, processes, and organization of each agency to foster better working relationships; to identify and affirmatively address areas of conflict, and cooperatively develop practical and effective means for issue resolution acceptable to all participating agencies; and to create interpersonal and interagency trust, affirmative patterns of communication, and positive mutually beneficial long-term relationships. If desired, the points of agreement and action items can be documented for the basis of a Memorandum of Agreement or other pertinent document.

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3. Conducting and Documenting Powerful NEPA Cumulative Impact Analyses

This interactive workshop, individually tailored for the Federal/state agency(ies), focuses on conducting effective and practical NEPA cumulative impact analyses, including contributions from induced growth. This workshop teaches participants how to select the proper scope of analysis for each cumulative impact analysis, develop the appropriate baseline, incorporate past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions, and conduct complete and legally sufficient cumulative impact analyses within the context of the overall NEPA planning process. The emphasis on practical planning and impact processes and strategies, based on powerful and readily implementable planning approaches, includes CEQ regulations, CEQ and US EPA cumulative impact guidance, court decisions and precedents, and effective impact analysis tools and processes. This workshop is tailored to advanced NEPA practitioners, reviewers, and managers, and can be effectively used to improve interdisciplinary working relationships within the agency and with cooperating and commenting agencies. Participants actively discuss real cumulative impact analysis cases, including impacts caused by induced growth, implementing the process for conducting cumulative impacts systematically, within the framework of NEPA, the CEQ regulations, CEQ and EPA guidance, and legal precedent. A variety of cumulative impact analyses, including quality analyses, prepared by other agencies as appropriate are reviewed and local cases analyzed.

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4. Developing and Implementing Effective NEPA Project and Program Planning

This highly consultative tailored workshop uses Environmental Planning Strategies, Inc.'s proven NEPA Facilitated Planning Approach to facilitate the interdisciplinary planning team through a specific NEPA planning effort, simultaneously training the participants in developing effective NEPA planning and implementation strategies. The workshop uses the CEQ regulations and guidance, agency NEPA procedures, legal cases, and the proven Facilitated Planning Approach to develop the purpose and need, scope of decisions to be made, issues using cause-and-effect relationships, a reasonable array of alternatives, issue-specific mitigation measures, and strategies for integrating other environmental laws and conducting impact analyses, including any necessary cumulative impact analyses. The interdisciplinary team, with Ms. Lee, begins preparation of the NEPA document content and a public involvement strategy, if desired. Ms. Lee becomes informed on the issues and science before coming on site to work with the team (Informed Facilitation) and assists in scoping out the complexity of and strategy for the planning and documentation effort and. Many clients have reached at least 85% completion stage for project and programmatic EAs at the end of 5 days of focused effort. The consultant can also be available, using consulting rates, for long-term support of the NEPA planning and documentation effort and for assistance with a public involvement strategy.

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5. Conducting Powerful NEPA Document Reviews

This interactive workshop, individually tailored for the Federal/state agency requesting training and/or the US EPA Section 309 CAA Reviewers, focuses on conducting effective reviews of agency NEPA documents for adequacy of analysis and severity of environmental impacts for improving the quality of your own agency NEPA documents and providing comments on other agencies' NEPA documents. The emphasis on practical review processes for analysis of NEPA document content and analyses includes CEQ guidance, court decisions and precedents, and effective review tools and processes, including Environmental Planning Strategies, Inc.'s proven, efficient, and effective "10-Step Document Review Wizard." This process systematically identifies, retrieves and categorizes key information from the source document, assists in the analysis of this information, and helps focus and prioritize the comments on truly important analytic lapses and inadequacies, while also identifying document and analysis strong points. This workshop can be tailored to beginner and advanced NEPA reviewers and practitioners, and can be effectively used to improve working relationships between agency reviewers and Federal and state agency NEPA practitioners and managers. The workshop uses a combination of lecture, facilitated discussion, and "real life" case studies, tailored to each individual audience to ensure that participants learn NEPA and effective methods of document review and commenting that can be used directly in their work.

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6. Powerful Planning Focusing on NEPA Purpose and Need

This highly consultative workshop, individually tailored for the client agency, is intended for agency managers and advanced NEPA practitioners to learn effective methods for analyzing and documenting the focused need for action and objectives (purpose and need) and the scope of decisions to be made. This workshop focuses on interdisciplinary processes for identifying the connected and similar actions included within the scope of a particular decision to be made, and conducting the analysis necessary to determine the true underlying problem that needs to be addressed. Participants learn how to identify the possible metrics for evaluating effectiveness (objectives) and select the most appropriate objectives for developing the array of reasonable alternatives and conducting effectiveness monitoring after project implementation. Using real case studies, participants learn how to make the discretionary administrative decisions necessary for identifying and selecting the scope of the need(s) for action, objectives, and scope of decisions to be made from the array of possible scopes, with well-reasoned rationale. Participants actively discuss and evaluate actual NEPA documents appropriate for their agency and learn to implement the process for initiating planning clearly with focused analysis and documentation of their need for action, objectives, and scope of decisions to be made, within the framework of NEPA, the CEQ regulations, CEQ and EPA guidance, the agency NEPA procedures, and legal precedent.

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7. Understanding the Regulatory Permitting Process of Section 404 of the CWA

This highly consultative workshop, tailored for the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and their client agencies, focuses on learning effective methods for integrating NEPA requirements and the CWA 404 Regulatory process in an efficient and effective manner. The workshop includes the Public Interest Review required for all applications for Individual Permits and the CWA Section 404(b)(1) Guidelines for applications involving discharge of dredged and fill material in the permit planning process and NEPA compliance. It also includes discussions of the merged NEPA/CWA 404 processes, especially for transportation projects. Corps policy and pertinent judicial decisions are integrated throughout the workshop, including determining and comparing the scope of NEPA analysis and decisions and the scope of CWA 404 permit analysis and decisions. Workshops longer than four days will include emphasis on evaluation of cumulative impacts. The workshop uses actual tailored documents pertinent to the agencies involved, including site-specific SOFs and NEPA documents as appropriate, and focuses on local and regional issues within the context of national guidance. In addition to the effective workshop manual, each participant also receives a notebook with all CWA 404 Regulatory guidance and regulations.

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8. Applying OFFP Inherently Governmental Function Requirements to NEPA

As with all the EPS, Inc. workshops and consulting, the Facilitated NEPA/Planning Approach emphasizes the necessary role played by federal government employees throughout the NEPA process and explains how to efficiently integrate both agency employees and contractor staff, when used, into the interdisciplinary NEPA process in compliance with OFFP "inherently governmental function" policies. As practiced by EPS, Inc. for 30 years, the Facilitated Approach (Lee, J. and S. Russell. Spring 1999. Effective NEPA Implementation: the Facilitated Approach. Env. Reg. and Permitting, p. 53-68) recognizes that government decisionmakers and experienced and skilled staff are fully responsible for the scope, process, content, and decisions to be made, including purpose and need, scope of decisions, issues and alternatives considered in detail, impact analyses, public involvement, and decisions. This workshop provides practical methods for leveraging the skills and expertise of government employees and managers when using third-party contractors and writing effective statements of work for NEPA implementation fully compliant with and serving the training requirements identified in OFFP Memo "Work Reserved for Performance by Federal Government Employees."

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