Support Great Basin Institute in Serving Public Lands in the West

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NEPA Services

Great Basin Institute provides NEPA services to increase the pace and scale of public land management projects by supporting planning and resource assessments required to support the NEPA/CEQA permitting process.  GBI provides dedicated NEPA teams that work across agencies to facilitate prioritized project to rapidly respond to planning needs at a landscape scale. Annual planning meetings with agencies, and with collaborative and stakeholder groups, support a program of work that anticipates the need and range of technical assistance required. GBI utilizes agency cooperative agreements, subcontracting, while also developing general service agreements for non-federal entities to execute timely and effective NEPA deliverables.

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SUPPORT FROM GBI

In recent years, GBI has scaled support for several post-fire planning needs for the US Forest Service.  In 2022, the Sequoia, Inyo, Eldorado, Plumas, and Lassen National Forests have entered into agreements to provide specialist support and scoping services for Categorical Exclusions, Environmental Assessments, and Enviornmental Impact Statements to address post-fire needs after the Dixie, Caldor, Beckworth, Wind, Castle, and KNP Fires, many of which comprise some of the largest wildfires in the history of the region.

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SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE DOCUMENTS

GBI prepares federal and state environmental reports required by NEPA and CEQA, including the following services and environmental compliance documents:

  • Initial Studies (ISs), Negative Declarations (NDs), and Mitigated Negative Declarations (MNDs)
  • Preliminary Environmental Assessments (PEAs)
  • Environmental Assessments (EAs)
  • Findings of No Significant Impact (FONSIs)
  • Environmental Impact Statements (EISs)
  • Environmental Impact Reports (CEQA)
  • Environmental Impact Statements (NEPA)

GBI is especially adept at preparing joint federal/state environmental documents with multiple-agency jurisdictions, including joint EIR/EISs and joint EA/ISs.

INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM

Mark holds a Bachelor of Science from Kent State University, a Master in Education from Vanderbilt University, and two Master of Science degrees in Environmental and Natural Resource Science and Land Use Planning from the University of Nevada, Reno. Since 1987, Mr. Demuth has directed numerous environmental compliance/NEPA projects throughout the western US.

At UNR, Mark teaches Environmental Policy and Law creating an upper-division course on NEPA that he has been teaching since 2006. Mark supports GBI NEPA project coordination across Region 5 of the US Forest Service.

John Umek, PhD., University of Nevada, Reno (2015) supports GBI water resources program and is Assistant Research Professor with the Desert Research Institute and has 18 years of experience in aquatic ecology, water quality monitoring, and natural resource management. He is experienced with a range of statistical methods, numerical modeling, and working with invasive and endangered aquatic organisms. He has extensive field surveying and water quality monitoring experience. Current and former projects include working on an interdisciplinary NSF project focused on springs biota structure and condition across the Southern Great Basin, impacts to springs overtime in the Eastern Great Basin and Lahontan Cutthroat trout movement in Central Nevada.

Sean Simpson, MA, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno (2010) is the Institute’s Senior Consulting Archeologist and has expertise in NEPA compliance inventories for mining, gas, oil and communication infrastructure on Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service public lands across Nevada, Washington and Oregon. Mr. Simpson has performed archaeological inventories and architectural assessments of irrigation and bridge features for the Army Corps of Engineers and has expertise and extensive experience in completing district evaluations of historic mining districts in central and northern Nevada, including Manhattan, Kinsley, Rochester, Yerington, Pine Grove, Rockland, Fairview, and Bell Mountain mining districts.

SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE DOCUMENTS

  • Initial Studies (ISs), Negative Declarations (NDs), and Mitigated Negative Declarations (MNDs)
  • Preliminary Environmental Assessments (PEAs)
  • Environmental Assessments (EAs)
  • Findings of No Significant Impact (FONSIs)
  • Environmental Impact Statements (EISs)
  • Environmental Impact Reports (CEQA)
  • Environmental Impact Statements (NEPA)
  • Scoping Reports
  • Alternative Screening Reports
  • Supplemental and Subsequent Impact Analysis
  • Programmatic Analysis
  • Agency Coordination
  • Decision Support
  • Baseline Field Studies – Biological Resources
  • Cultural Resources / Cultural Heritage / Archaeology
  • Digital Analyses, and Data Conveyance for Impact Assessment
  • Ecological Design, Implementation and Restoration
  • Environmental Planning, Mitigation, and Monitoring
  • Environmental Policy Development
  • Regulatory Permitting and Negotiation
  • Siting, Project Feasibility, Permitting Strategy, and Scalable Program Management
  • Stakeholder/ Public Engagement and Outreach, including Social Media