by Judy Calman, Staff Attorney

The federal agencies which administer environmental laws are also often referred to only by acronym.  I will briefly explain the basic functions of a few of the main agencies which are concerned with various aspects of federal environmental policy.  Any opinions about the effectiveness of these agencies or the missions they are charged with are my own.  In working with these laws and these agencies it is impossible not to notice some discrepancies in their operations, but also important to remember the inevitability of this, given the vastness of the federal government.

DOI: The Department of the Interior (formed in 1849) is the federal department responsible for conservation and management of federal land and resources, and is also responsible for implementing programs relating to Native American affairs.  The department manages well over 500 million acres land, including hundreds of National Parks, dams, and monuments.  Some of the agencies located within the DOI are the National Park Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Geological Survey, the Bureau of Land Management and the Office of Surface Mining.  Several of these are specifically outlined below.

FWS: The Fish and Wildlife Service (formed in 1940) is essentially the ecology department of the federal government.  They are a subset of the DOI, and are responsible for doing biological surveys and inventories.  They are also charged with administering many portions of the Endangered Species Act.  When other federal agencies wish to begin projects in areas which contain listed species, they are required to consult with FWS to make sure they will not harm them.  FWS goes to the site and does a biological assessment (BA), after which they issue a Biological Opinion (BO).  The BO will advise the applying agency on their project’s impact on listed species and will approve the project, disapprove the project, or approve the project with stipulations or limitations.  The FWS may also issue Incidental Take Permits (ITP’s), which excuse the applying agency from liability if their project results in truly accidental harm to a listed species.  The FWS mission statement is “working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.”

BLM: The Bureau of Land Management (formed in 1946) manages federal public lands in a multi-use fashion, meaning they are charged with preserving the land for future generations while at the same time maximizing the potential from natural resources like oil, natural gas, and minerals.  They additionally administer grazing allotments on public land by private ranchers.  Because private companies pay the federal government to utilize the resources available on these public lands, operations overseen by the BLM generate significant income for the United States.  This scenario often creates controversy.  There is sometimes tension between environmentalists and the BLM because it can seem that the agency has more of an incentive to accommodate industry than the non-paying public.  The schizophrenic nature of the BLM mission statement (to develop resources as well as preserving land) by nature does not allow the agency to be entirely successful, since some of their decisions inherently involve a trade-off between their contrary goals.

BOR: The Bureau of Reclamation (formed in 1907) oversees water use in the United States, including hydropower, dams, and reservoirs.  This includes approximately 180 projects in the 17 Western states (including the dams on the Rio Grande), and provides domestic water to about one third of these states’ populations.  Its mission statement is “manage, develop, and protect water and related resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner in the interest of the American public.”

NPS: The National Park Service (formed in 1916) manages all National parks and monuments.  It manages more than 84 million acres of land, including over 12,000 miles of trails, 68,000 archeological sites and 27,000 historic structures.  Wilderness Areas and Marine Protection areas are some of the special designations that can be placed on National Parks.

USDA: The United States Department of Agriculture (formed in 1862) administers US policy with regards to farming and food.  Within that mission is protection of agricultural resources, food research, and food safety.  Their mission statement is to “provide leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, and related issues based on sound public policy, the best available science, and efficient management.”  Several agencies are located within the USDA including the Forest Service, Wildlife Services, the Natural Resource Conservation Service, the National Organic program and the Farm Service Agency.

FS: The Forest Service (formed in 1905) is the agency which administers all of the National Forests and National Grasslands, comprising approximately 193 million acres. The mission of the Forest Service is “to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations.”  This can create some of the same problems as within the BLM, because its duties involve both keeping forests healthy and maintaining and restoring diversity, as well as logging the forests for timber sales (over 1.5 billion trees are cut down every year in National Forests).  The Forest Service also spends a significant amount of time fighting forest fires.

EPA: The Environmental Protection Agency (formed in 1970) is charged with protecting human health and the environment.  It is responsible for administering the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Superfund program, and the registration of pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, along with administering many other laws.  The EPA also gives out grants to organizations and provides public education programs about the environment.

DOE: The Department of Energy (formed in 1977) was created primarily to deal with the country’s nuclear energy and nuclear weapons programs.  In addition to nuclear weapons, its priorities also include energy research, domestic energy production, energy conservation, and radioactive waste disposal.  The DOE’s current budget provides much more money for renewable energy research than in previous years (2.3 billion for FY 2010).

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