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Glossary
of Acronyms & Terms
Wilderness and environmental advocacy are full of terms
of art and acronyms. Here is a listing of some of the more commonly-used
ones. If you come across others you would like to see added, or if you
think something should be added to these explanations, let us know.
We’ll update the list from time to time.
- Wilderness --
- Federal lands which are designated by act of Congress as part of
the National Wilderness Preservation System, using the Wilderness
Act of 1964. The requirement is that they be untrammeled, where people
are visitors rather than permanent residents, and human development
is relatively insignificant. There is not a legal requirement
that Wilderness lands be roadless, although generally boundaries are
drawn alongside roads. If a road clearly has not been used in a long
time and is reverting to a natural state, it can be included. The
same goes for structures like miners’ cabins. (California has its
own state wilderness areas as well.)
- WSA (Wilderness Study Area) --
- Lands not yet formally designated by Congress as Wilderness. However,
the managing agency has officially designated them to be managedin
a way which does not impair their suitability for Wilderness designation
at a later date.
- NCA (National Conservation Area) --
- An area protected to some degree or other by act of Congress. It
may or may not contain wilderness. There is no legally defined level
of protection for NCAs in general. Each is unique, as defined
by the specific legislation setting it up.
- EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) --
- Required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) whenever
the government embarks on a project likely to have a significant effect
on the natural or human environment. The government must prepare a
comprehensive report outlining alternatives to the proposed action
which reflect a full range of options, including a no action alternative,
meaning do nothing. (For projects undertaken by the state of California,
they are known EIRs -- Environmental Impact Reports). If a
government agency finds negligible impact on the environment from
a project, it issues a so-called negative declaration.
- DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement) --
- Just that. These are available for the public to comment on, for
periods of 60 - 90 days generally. The stated deadline is a POSTMARK
deadline, and the agency is required by law to respond in the final
EIS in some way to all comments postmarked by the deadline. Comments
received after the deadline must still be taken into account when
preparing the final EIS, but the agency is under no obligation to
respond to them.
- EA (Environmental Assessment) --
- Similar to an EIS, but not nearly as complex or rigorous.
Usually used on smaller projects with lesser impact. (Sometimes Edward
Abbey is referred to as EA.)
- Federal Register --
- The official government listing of all rules, proposed rules, and
notices of the federal government, including presidential proclamations.
It can be found back to 1994 online at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces140.html
- RS 2477 --
- Law passed in 1866, stating: The right of way for the construction
of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses is hereby
granted. The law was repealed in 1976, but continues to be a source
of contention. Rural counties in the West claim it gives them the
right to use any route that exists across public land. The federal
government, on the other hand, claims that many of these are not roads
because: they were never constructed; they aren’t highways; and many
appeared after 1976.
- ORV, OHV, ATV (Off-road vehicle, off-highway vehicle, all-terrain
vehicle) --
- Vehicles designed to be driven on surfaces other than roads. Probably
the greatest threat right now to wilderness in the West, after oil
and gas production. Advances in technology are allowing them to penetrate
farther and farther into wild areas. They cause erosion and pollution
(estimates of the gas and oil they expel unburned run as high as 30%).
Use has increased dramatically in the last few years. There is plenty
of land available to them to drive around in. There is no need for
wilderness areas to be sacrificed for them.
- BLM (Bureau of Land Management) --
- Federal agency within the Dept. of the Interior, responsible for
all federal land not under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service,
National Forest Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, or Dept. of
Defense. Traditionally it has been in favor of grazing and extractive
industries (oil, gas, coal) but this is changing -- in Utah more slowly
than in other places. However, the BLM recently has been given jurisdiction
over its first national monuments, the first being the Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument in Utah, known by the initials GSENM.
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