Environmental Planning
JW Associates has extensive planning experience, particularly with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for federal agencies. As a company we have completed more than 12 NEPA projects. Our senior staff have completed more than 50 NEPA projects. We have completed NEPA projects for the US Forest Service, BLM, National Park Service, and GSA. Partners on these projects have included many other agencies and stakeholders.
Mr. Piehl has completed 25 NEPA projects himself including many EAs. In 2002, he participated as a subject matter expert in a modeling exercise designed to identify process difficulties with the NEPA as applied to USDA Forest Service projects. This project (Reflecting Complexity & Impact of Laws on a USDA Forest Service Project) was used as support to Process Predicament – How Statutory, Regulatory and Administrative Factors Affect National Forest Management, a policy document that the Chief of the USDA Forest Service issued.
Landscape/Watershed Assessments
JW Associates has been a leader in innovative approaches to Watershed/Landscape Assessments in the last 10 years. Our involvement began in the Upper South Platte Watershed Landscape Assessment in 1999. That assessment has lead to forest restoration of more than 10,000 acres of ponderosa pine forest. Numerous NEPA planning efforts have used that assessment as support for the landscape vision of forest restoration.
JW Associates has completed three other large-scale landscape assessments in association with Northern Arizona University in Arizona and New Mexico. Those assessments were focused on prioritizing watersheds for treatment to reduce the impacts of flooding and erosion following intense wildfires.
We recently supported the Colorado State Forest Service and a group of agencies, water providers and other technical advisors in creation of Protecting Critical Watersheds in Colorado from Wildfire: A Technical Approach to Watershed Assessment and Prioritization. We have completed six watershed assessments and are currently implementing that approach in two more watersheds in Colorado.
Facilitation/Public Involvement
JW Associates has designed, organized, run and facilitated more than 50 public meetings. We also have experience on more than 25 projects with all other aspects of public involvement, including; scoping, content analysis, issue development, and comment analysis and responses. We have handled large public involvement programs were issues were developed from public meetings and other input, the issues were addressed in a management plan, and then the plan was reviewed and commented on through facilitation of additional public meetings.
JW Associates has experience with facilitating diverse groups through natural resource decisions. We are constantly working with stakeholder groups that have different views on natural resource issues but can reach common goals through a facilitated process. These projects require an understanding on the technical issues as well as an ability to move the group toward a common goal.
The list of projects in the pulldown menu demonstrate our experiences with the above Focus Areas