After several successful thematic issues of Environmental Practice devoted to brownfields, sustainability, and the 40th anniversary of the passage of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), this issue is “themeless,” consisting of an eclectic mixture of policy and science research articles, perspectives, and dialogue.

In this article, techniques of deliberative democracy are described and their applications to problems of natural resource management are discussed. It is argued that deliberative approaches to resource management achieve a higher level of both ecological rationality and political sustainability than do either elite decision making or interest-group bargaining.

Environmental Practice 12:195–201 (2010)

This article evaluates fishermen's knowledge about the value of mangrove to fish stock and discusses possible management practices to help restore fish stock within the Fosu Lagoon, Ghana. The lagoon was recently added to the list of water bodies with dead zones, raising concern for the people who depend on it for both sustenance and livelihood. The methodology includes in-depth interviews and surveys. Feedback was collected from 120 fishermen representing the different communities that fish the lagoon. Findings did include that fishermen indicated they have some knowledge about mangroves in general and specifically their value to fishing. However, they lack knowledge about the scientific information to manage these mangroves properly to derive the complete benefits that mangroves provide. With its importance to the livelihood of the fishermen and the traditional heritage of the Cape Coast (Ghana) community as a whole, Fosu Lagoon should be the object of more in-depth studies to help restore the fishery resources. This article provides baseline information for developing educational programs to educate the people about the economic, ecological value, and functions of mangroves. The report analyzes one of the obstacles—depletion of mangroves—leading to decline in fish resources in the lagoon. Based on the knowledge of the fishermen, the article provides some recommendations for better management of the lagoon to help reverse fish decline. This work is original, as no such analysis has been carried out before for this region.

Environmental Practice 12:202–213 (2010)

Social capital concepts may help to explain implementation gaps and to make water demand management policies more effective. However, the research is limited along these lines of inquiry. We collected data through multiple semistructured interviews, participant observation, surveys, and literature review to assess the evidence of social capital's influence on municipal water policy. The research approach represents an alternative because it challenges the dominance of a technical conceptualization of water management.

Environmental Practice 12:214–226 (2010)

The environmental review process and the required federal and state permits for wetlands and endangered species impacts have been blamed for delays in the development of critical infrastructure projects. Many of the delays are a result of negotiations surrounding the compensatory mitigation that is included as a part of the environmental review and included in the subsequent regulatory permits. Various programs around the nation are using proactive planning and advance compensatory mitigation to reduce delays and increase the environmental benefits associated with mitigation for infrastructure development. In this article, we provide case studies of four programs that illustrate how various agencies are incorporating advance mitigation into their infrastructure planning and implementation, and provide a critical examination of the attributes and status of these programs, along with the opportunities and challenges associated with advance mitigation. We have chosen these case studies to reflect a range of advance compensatory mitigation approaches toward endangered species and wetlands at various scales from four different regions of the nation. We contend that advanced mitigation offers a more effective and efficient approach. However, challenges exist in the need for up-front capital investment, the current lack of regulatory certainty, and lack of incentives to go beyond project-level mitigation. These challenges are significant, but are being addressed in some progressive ways across the nation. We believe that advance mitigation is the most cost-effective method for streamlining regional unavoidable impacts and should be explored and in any future federal surface transportation reauthorization.

Environmental Practice 12:227–236 (2010)

Federal agencies involved in response and recovery actions in the aftermath of disasters must comply with the various environmental planning laws, executive orders, and regulations, such as review under the National Environmental Policy Act, National Historic Preservation Act, Endangered Species Act, and Executive Order 11988: Floodplain Management. Many of these have provisions to address exigencies such as emergencies, disaster declarations, and related response and recovery actions. However, a careful reading of over 20 of these environmental planning requirements shows that the emergency provisions are not aligned and some may be very limited in scope. Experience within the Federal Emergency Management Agency shows that this patchwork of provisions can create inconsistencies and frustration during the recovery process of major disasters. This article provides a brief evaluation of these provisions, provides a discussion of the challenges in applying the various provisions, and encourages the start of a dialogue at the federal level by providing strategies to improve consistency among these provisions in light of the various ongoing efforts associated with recovery processes in the aftermath of disasters.

Environmental Practice 12:237–246 (2010)

With renewed emphasis on environmental protection and growing scholarly consensus on the need to move beyond the traditional command-and-control approach to environmental regulation, the “window” may be opening for significant changes in environmental policy in the United States. Much of the dialogue focuses on next-generation environmental policies that are cooperative instead of confrontational, comprehensive rather than fragmented, and flexible instead of rigid. This pending transition invariably raises questions about regulatory enforcement and, most notably, fears of regulatory capture. Accordingly, this article explores the discussion of next-generation environmental policies and their implications for environmental inspectors in the context of regulatory enforcement. The transition to next-generation policies is likely to have significant impacts on inspectors; however, I argue that concerns of regulatory capture are overstated, based on a survey of existing research on regulatory enforcement.

Environmental Practice 12:247–259 (2010)

Our nation's built infrastructure—our water supply and wastewater treatment systems, roads and bridges, railroads, and energy production and delivery systems—needs repair and modernization. At the same time, our natural infrastructure—our forests, prairies, wetlands, streams, rivers, estuaries, and shorelines—are in even greater need of repair. Once restored, these natural infrastructures and ecosystems can address pressing national problems: the need to conserve energy, improve water quality and reduce coastal hypoxia, decrease flood damage, and address global warming.

In Environmental Practice 12(2), I discussed the mistakes in the Council on Environmental Quality's (CEQ's) regulations. In this second installment, I discuss the gaps in CEQ's regulations. Should the CEQ's regulations once again be considered for revision or reform or amendment, I suggest these mistakes and gaps as candidates for a starting place.

Recent events in the media (December 2009) have led me to prepare a long overdue essay on how we advance scientifically and administratively. The particular event in mind is the release of e-mails among top climatologists which hint at a less-than-perfect system of deduction from data to theory. This was accentuated by later retractions of rather grandiose statements that the Himalayan Glaciers were melting. Administratively, reliance on theory can have a dramatic affect on management actions, grants, proposed regulations, and a myriad of other results coming as ripples on the pond of knowledge.

I read the article “In Search of Common Ground: Exploring Identity and Core Competencies for Interdisciplinary Environmental Programs” in Environmental Practice volume 12, number 1 (March 2010), and appreciate the efforts of the authors and the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) on this issue. As a graduate of interdisciplinary programs in Environmental Science (BS/MS) 15 years ago, I wanted to note that another parameter, not mentioned in the article, that I believe increasingly affects the ability of environmental professionals from interdisciplinary academic programs such as environmental science to succeed in their professions is occupational licensing. Certifications are nice but generally make little difference in comparison to state-issued licenses required for certain types of environmental work that are limited to individuals from specific academic backgrounds. For example, as a result of professional licensing laws, an environmental scientist can no longer submit an environmental site investigation report in Texas (and many other states); only a geologist can. This translates into professional and business opportunities for the licensed group that may ultimately affect the viability of interdisciplinary environmental programs in our universities. Hopefully the efforts of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors (CEDD) and those of the NCSE discussed in the article and the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) can make an impact on this issue.