Enacted into law on January 1, 1970, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) transformed how government Agencies make decisions which may impact the environment: integrating environmental quality concerns into Federal policy and decision making. Through NEPA, the Federal government requires three vital processes during project planning that had not been undertaken before:
1. all Federal agencies must consider the environmental impacts of their proposed actions;
2. the public must be informed of the potential environmental impacts of proposed actions;
3. the public must be involved in planning and analysis relevant to actions that impact the environment.
To fulfill the above, federal agencies implemented what has come to be known as the "NEPA process." This process is usually triggered whenever federal funding is used for a project, or when a project is focused on major right of ways, land exchanges, or permit renewals involving federal approval.
Articles, citations, reports, websites, and multimedia resources focused on rangeland ecology, management, restoration, and other issues on American rangelands.