CRS Report: 94-339 - Ecosystem Management, Federal Agency Activities

The Department of Defense (DoD) is actively participating in the White House's Ecosystem Management Initiative, at both Task Force and Work Group levels. We will work to integrate the coordinated definitions, guidelines and principles developed by the Task Force into existing DoD policy directives. An ongoing challenge for DoD is to integrate our stewardship responsibilities with our prime mission of national defense.

Conservation is one of the four pillars of DoD's Environmental Security program. We have committed to completing biological inventories of our installations, and developing and implementing integrated natural resources management plans.

Over the past several years, DoD has increased its active involvement in both internal and interagency ecosystem management initiatives. Many of these efforts have been funded by the DoD Legacy Resource Management Program, a FY 1991 initiative to enhance DoD's stewardship of its natural and cultural resources.

One recent Legacy initiative is the funding of a project at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base to develop a comprehensive multiple-species management Plan. In general, we are moving away from a species-by-species management approach to a more holistic approach to ecosystem management.

DoD is an active participant in the Interagency Ecosystem Management Coordination Group. This group is designed to share information, to coordinate projects of interest across agency lines, and to provide a forum to develop new concepts in ecosystem management.

DoD has emphasized the development of partnerships through the Legacy program. These include four initiatives.

Working with fellow partners of the Department of the Interior's National Gap Analysis Program, we are providing funding through the Legacy program to identify distributions of species habitat types, vegetation cover types, land ownership and management. Our FY 1993 efforts focused on work in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. One goal of our participation is to identify target areas, including DoD lands, where management of biodiversity could be enhanced.

The Army is using the ITAM program to enhance its management of its training lands. This program helps to mitigate land management problems and includes:

DoD supports demonstrations of spatial technologies such as remote sensing, global positioning systems, image processing, GIS, and radio telemetry. Currently, DoD's Legacy program is supporting cutting edge applications of some of these technologies to map vegetation communities in the Panama Canal Zone.

DoD can implement ecosystem management under the current budget structure. However, like all Federal agencies, DoD is under increasing fiscal constraints that restrict the hiring of natural resources management personnel and the ability to complete all required ecosystem-related work in a timely manner.

DoD would like to revise existing regulations and to develop guidance specific to ecosystem management. These internal efforts have been delayed by a lack of adequate staffing.

DoD would like to identify new techniques to support ecosystem management. Primacy is given to techniques that will help us to identify our high priority resources more effectively and economically.

DoD intends to play a leadership role in developing an ecosystem management approach throughout the Department. DoD recognizes the importance of partnerships with other agencies and organizations to a successful conservation program and will continue efforts to enhance and expand upon our current initiatives. DoD believes that an ecosystem approach to resource management is the best way for it to continue its mission and its stewardship responsibilities.

Col. Robert L. McGuire
Department of Defense
Environmental Conservation and Installation
ODUSD (ES) CI
400 Army Navy Drive, Suite 206
Arlington, Virginia 22202-2884

From the inception of the United States' nuclear energy program, land was set aside for security reasons, as a buffer between the public and laboratory operations, and to study the impacts of energy development activities on the environment. The Department of Energy is now the fourth largest Federal landholder, with 3300 square miles of lands to manage. Portions of this land need to be decontaminated and restored in the coming decade and beyond. This will likely consume fully one-third of the Department's total budget.

The Department of Energy's environmental management policy for these sites has been developed in response to mandates from the U.S. Congress under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), specifically through the direction of six environmental goals, to protect the ecosystem processes and achieve environmental quality. NEPA subsection 101(a) states that the Federal government shall "use all practical means and measures...to create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony, and fulfill the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations of Americans." The Department of Energy, as an outgrowth of its environmental management and research initiatives under this mandate and its ongoing site planning efforts, has achieved modest success in initiating some fundamental elements of ecosystem management throughout its complex in the intervening years.

There are many definitions of "ecosystem management" which are all quite similar; however the individual words are subject to interpretation. It may be better to describe what is involved in the concept: it is a consensual process; based on the best available science; it specifically includes human interactions and management; and uses natural instead of political boundaries. We must recognize that ecosystems change; the planning done must be flexible enough to accommodate changes in the ecosystem, developments in science, and changes in human and economic aspects.

The Department's first initiative on environmental management was the charter of the National Environmental Research Parks (NERP) program in 1975. This has lead to the establishment of seven NERPs across the country. These parks lead the way in many areas of ecological research such as: ecosystem function and human impacts; concepts of maintenance of genetic diversity, ecosystem health, and the importance of ecosystem function; and the fundamentals of realistic ecosystem management. As a result we have developed a world-recognized science and technology base in ecosystem issues, health and impacts.

More recently, the establishment of the Department's Office of Environmental Management in 1989 and recent passage of new environmental legislation (Federal Facility Compliance Act, Community Environmental Response Facilitation Act), the reauthorization of Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act and the Clean Water Act, and the issuance of new Executive Orders (such as on Environmental Justice and on Wetlands), have caused the Department's environmental perspective to include a broader ecosystem context with the active involvement of Native American tribes, State and local governments and interested parties. In the past, Department-wide coordination of a proactive ecosystem management approach at its sites and with interactions with other agencies has been limited; this is changing.

The Department's current focus on the dynamic changes occurring with respect to redefining its missions and its effort to clean-up almost 50 years of pollution at its sites have led it to the issue of addressing future uses at specific sites and including ecosystem-based management. In 1993, the Secretary of Energy committed to a renewed emphasis to the pursuit of total quality environmental management by stating its Department Mission to be one of "providing the scientific foundation, technology, policy and institutional leadership necessary to achieve...improved environmental quality."

Several organizations within the Department are participating in a process of developing a shared vision of the desired condition of its sites and their host regions consistent with the overarching goal of maintaining the natural sustainability and biological diversity of the ecosystem while supporting sustainable economic development and communities. The Office of Environmental Management, the Office of Facility Management, the Office of Environment, Safety and Health, the Office of Energy Research, and the Office of Environmental Analysis in the Policy Office have all contributed to this effort.

The Department currently has in place two internal directive Orders which provide the basic tools for implementing a proactive ecosystem management approach to ensuring a sustainable environment and a sustainable economy and a redirected mission to promote the concept. The Orders state that the Department is committed to environmental protection goals, restoring environmental quality, and addressing regional and local concerns in planning analysis.

The Ecosystems Management issue is an opportunity for the Department to demonstrate a serious commitment to Total Quality Environmental Management. The opportunity to implement science and consensus-based management is now. We can take the experience we have developed and make the transition into ecosystem management.

The Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 mandates that the Department of Energy (at that time, called the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA)) engage in environmental research related to the development of energy sources so as to advance the goals of restoring, protecting and enhancing environmental quality.

The Mission Statement for the Department of Energy states, in part, that the Department will provide "the scientific foundation, technology, policy and institutional leadership necessary to achieve...improved environmental quality."

Several organizations within the Department have become involved in a participatory process of developing a shared vision of the desired condition of its sites and their host regions consistent with the overarching goal of maintaining the natural sustainability and biological diversity of the ecosystem while supporting sustainable economic development and communities.

The Office of Environmental Management was established in 1989 as a single line organization to implement cleanup, compliance, and waste management responsibilities with the creation of a new culture and an emphasis on environmental and safety concerns. A major initiative has been to foster an open process of identifying the potential future use options at its sites and the integration of stakeholder-preferred future uses into site and Department planning and decision-making.

The newly established Office of Facility Management has taken the current level of Department planning from the management of site real-property and facilities to a more holistic approach which integrates stakeholder and community concerns and visions creating a regional planning process.

The Office of Environment, Safety and Health has done extensive work in defining and providing structure for the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act and that of the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act within the Department. A major initiative is underway utilizing an ecosystem management approach to minimizing natural resource damages.

Basic scientific research continues to be accomplished under the direction of the Office of Energy Research through its National Environmental Research Parks. This effort has built a foundation of knowledge regarding ecological interactions and environmental compatibility of technology development and human use, which the Department and the Nation can use as they further embrace this new ecosystem management approach and redirect planning and decision-making efforts to successfully achieve a strong link between a healthy economy and a healthy environment.

The Office of Environmental Analysis, within the Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation, is reviewing and developing the Department's integrated approach to a broader consideration of the ecosystem as a dynamic community of biological organisms, including humans, and the physical environment with which they interact. The Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation is the lead office for the Department's effort with the Interagency Ecosystem Management Task Force.

The Charter for the National Environmental Research Parks has these objectives: "to develop methods to quantitatively and continuously assess and monitor the environmental impact of man's activities; to develop methods to estimate or predict the environmental response to proposed and ongoing activities; and to demonstrate the impact of various activities on the environment and evaluate methods to minimize adverse impacts." The 1985 document Department of Energy National Environmental Research Parks characterizes the extent and activities at the research sites.

The Department currently has in place two Orders which provide the basic tools for implementing a proactive ecosystem management approach to ensuring a sustainable environment and a sustainable economy and a redirected mission to promote the concept.

Under the Secretary's leadership, the organizations within the Department are working to coordinate and integrate the previously disparate elements of ecosystem management into a unified Department agenda. Only by redirection of this mission can the Department and its sites achieve Total Quality Environmental Management and ensure a sustainable environment and sustainable economy.

**Department of Energy Ecosystem Management Team**
Bill Breed	Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation
Bill Osburn	Office of Energy Research
Randy Harris	Office of Environmental Management
John Bascietto	Office of Environment, Safety and Health
Don Trost	Office of Field Management
Clive Jorgenson	Office of Energy Research
Jeff Crater	Office of Environmental Management
Helen McCammon	Office of Energy Research
Bill Metz	Argonne National Lab
Don Elle	Nevada Test Site NERP
Rod Walton	FermiLab NERP
Lee Rogers	Hanford NERP
Ron Chesser	Savannah River NERP
Tim Reynolds	Idaho National Engineering Lab NERP
Mike Huston	Oak Ridge NERP

Many other agencies and interests are becoming involved in future use and management issues at Department of Energy sites. The Department continues to foster cooperative research efforts, economic development initiatives, and participation protocols with Federal agencies, tribes, and State and local governments, plus universities, businesses and industries, and interested citizens. Citizen advisory groups continue to be established at Department sites.

Federal agencies involved in cooperative research work and ecosystem management at various Department sites include: the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish & Wildlife Service, the National Science Foundation, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Department of Defense.

Where appropriate, activities at NERP sites have been coordinated with the International Biological Program (IBP), the Man and Biosphere Program (MAB), and with the National Science Foundation Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program. They have been used as research areas by many of the local universities, including Washington State, Colorado State, the University of California, the University of Georgia, the University of Tennessee, the University of Idaho, the University of New Mexico, the University of Nevada, and many other universities.

The Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation represents the Department in the Interagency Ecosystem Management effort. We view this as an opportunity for cooperative efforts for realization of the Nation's environmental and economic goals.

All of the National Laboratories have extensive experience in the use of advanced computer technologies, involving tools such as geographic information systems (GIS) and CAD/CAM for information and data management and analysis. Examples of analyses include: dynamic site characterization and management planning, including remediation planning; analysis of climate change-induced sea level rise, incorporating bio-geophysical processes; and analyses of energy and environmental issues, such as tropospheric ozone mitigation policies. In addition, there is an overall ParkNet computer network between sites, with a common database, system utilities, standard reporting, and statistical analysis software. The Department also maintains a data base of all facilities with geographical, functional, and ownership information. This data is housed in the Department's Facility Information Management System maintained by the Office of Field Management. Within the Headquarters, both the Policy Office and the Energy Information Agency use a GIS for analysis of policy and environmental issues.

The growing diversity of uses and applications provides a strong argument for the value of a standard Geographic Information System approach for evaluation of ecological management and policy issues. The development of a standard GIS to be used at each site would facilitate a coordinated examination and analysis of different interests and options, enhance understanding and communication, and facilitate conflict mediation.

Funding for ecosystem management resides in many different Departmental organizations, and will continue to do so within the Department in the future. Recognition and priority of this overarching approach is required, perhaps in an independent budget crosscut to ensure integration and coordination among programs and continued emphasis. The Department of Energy anticipates that increased attention to the value of integrated management of resources, environmental problems and economic development, in a holistic or ecosystem manner in the future will actually be more cost-effective. Implementation of full-blown ecosystem management will have a definite cost, but with a resultant increase in quality of the environmental management and outcomes.

The Department's intention is to move forward in utilization of the experiential and technical resource for the application of ecosystem concepts and concerns into Department of Energy land use planning and vision for the future. In the future, with dwindling agency budgets, we may be constrained in staffing and activities associated with the sites.

The Department of Energy will continue to take a leadership role on the leading edge of ecosystem management to fulfill its missions. This leadership is critical for our environmental and stewardship responsibility to cleanup the cold war lab sites, but also to look to the future to provide a sustainable ecosystem and to support sustainable economic development and communities for future generations.

The ecosystems management initiative within this Administration is an opportunity for the Department to coordinate its activities among organizations and sites in a continuing serious commitment to Total Quality Environmental Management. We can take our present and past experiences and make the transition into a Department-wide ecosystem management approach. As institutional changes occur within the Department, and the DOE order for site development planning is being revised, this is an excellent chance to implement ecosystem concerns into the Department of Energy's long-term management plans.

At the present time, implementing a comprehensive, integrated ecosystem management approach within the Department is not impeded by legal restrictions, DOE orders, or regulations. The basic elements and experience base presently reside within the Department and the sites. In order to fully achieve an effective role for ecosystem management, the Department is reviewing its organizational structure to determine the policy options, efficiencies, and management opportunities.

Redistributed as a Service of the National Library for the Environment*