American Public University (APU) is proud to partner with the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) to support members pursuing their academic and career goals. Through this partnership, NAEP members and their families are eligible for a 15% tuition grant on APU's 200+ online degree and certificate programs — including Environmental Science, Environmental Policy Management, and Environmental Sustainability. APU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and designed for working professionals, with 100% online courses, no set login times, and classes that start every month. Learn more about your NAEP member benefits at APUpartners.com/NAEP.

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2024 Annual NEPA Report

The National Association of Environmental Professionals’ National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Working Group is pleased to present the 2024 Annual NEPA Report. This report contains summaries of NEPA developments during the year as well as the NEPA Working Group’s efforts for the past year. The report is prepared and published through the initiative and volunteer efforts of members of the NAEP NEPA Working Group.

Call for Abstracts Now Open: IAIA26 in Québec City

NAEP is proud to partner with the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA), and we are pleased to share that the call for abstracts is now open for IAIA26: Misinformation, Disinformation, Communication, & Impact Assessment.

Workshop Summary Report on Using AI Tools to Improve the Efficiency and Outcomes of the NEPA Process

AI for Permitting Workshop at the 2025 National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) Annual Conference

At the NAEP 2025 Conference and Training Symposium in Charleston, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) hosted a workshop focused on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews and federal permitting processes.

The Coast Guard and Preventing Environmental Pollution

Supreme Court Weighs in on NEPA's Scope and Environmental Reviews

RCO Staff recently posted an invitation for public comment on potential policy changes affecting the Youth Athletic Facilities (YAF) program and the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program – Local Parks category. Four policy proposals are under development:

The National Association of Environmental Professionals’ National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Working Group is pleased to present the 2022 Annual NEPA Report. This report contains summaries of NEPA development during the year as well as the NEPA Working Group’s efforts for the past year. This report is prepared and published through the initiative and volunteer efforts of members of the NAEP NEPA Working Group.

We have two exciting new updates we’d like to share with you and would like you to check out on our website, naep-sc.org, and the deadline to apply is June 1. Please help us get the word out!

In this place we call home, do we always try to find the life within it – our ecology of place?  The poet Mary Oliver once said, “Attention is the beginning of devotion.”  I have found that to listen is to learn, to pay attention is to be present within our most lively of voices, with our eyes looking toward greater measures of trustworthiness – understanding what is sacred to all people within our environment.  This purposeful focus opens a path to ecocentrism, evoking a wind-shift of guiding ideas, and rebalancing our relationship with the earth. 

We have all heard a lot about the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the 1.2 trillion dollars that it promises to pump into fixing our roads, bridges and other infrastructure.  What might not be readily apparent to some who have not yet taken a deep dive into the IIJA is what the investment could do for climate change. The IIJA proposes to invest approximately $75 billion in targeted carbon emission reduction initiatives and billions more in other initiatives that will have the effect on reducing emissions.  Below are some of the key emissions reduction initiatives addressed by the IIJA:

Over the years I have considered myself fortunate to have had two successful careers, one as an environmental professional in cultural resource management ([CRM] where I am now) and one in archaeological publishing (my past life). During my time in publishing, I collaborated with archaeologists all over the world as a book editor and production manager, which taught me, ironically, important language skills I needed to succeed in a 100-percent remote setting. Some skills I learned through trial and error, and some I learned through formal training. I found, however, as I transitioned back to CRM those skills were entirely transferable but poorly understood. But I was excited to bring this new way of communicating and leadership to the field by practicing several simple language principles that can be practiced no matter what position you hold: listen first-talk last; assume good intentions, not bad; eliminate the ego; avoid deficit language and be appreciative.

--W.S. Merwin

Recently I reflected on Tony Hiss’s book In Motion – The Experience of Travel. Hiss talks about the experience of deep travel. The point of travel is more than getting from point A to point B; it is first and foremost an experience, the experience of traveling to planned destinations. And then it is something more – the experience of the unplanned encounters and realizations along the way. We can teach ourselves to have more deep travel moments – both far from home and close to it and within our community. We can learn the human dimension of travel and our emotions associated with the travel choices we make. Creating livable, integrated communities that preserve, in fact enhance, our quality of place is a collective, collaborative process, and it takes all of us to realize its far-reaching benefits. 

How often do we consider our relationship to place? How often is it foremost in our minds and hearts that we belong to and are being shaped by a specific place? We are truly in relationship with the landscape, both the built and natural landscape. Whether we know it or not, ours is a conscious and subconscious decision to be here; here in a place that reflects the emotional landscape we move through.

Last year as COVID restrictions were being initiated throughout the world, NAEP had just shifted from an in-person conference format to a remote conference. At that time, scientists were not being held in high regard in many venues. NAEP was very concerned about how as an organization we were going to navigate this new paradigm of helping our members stay engaged and informed considering all of the changes and uncertainties. Our jobs are critical for public health and safety as well as delivering solutions for the delivery of infrastructure. A conversation with David Bancroft, Executive Director of the International Association of Impact Assessment, about the challenges of engaging our professionals sparked an idea of running a social media event of "Thank an Environmental Professional Day". NAEP and IAIA did a media blast which was well received.

Stories and Science: Eco-justice, Action & Hope

The National Storytelling Network has an Open Call for Proposals for their EarthUp conference to be held online this April. The theme of the conference is "Stories and Science: Eco-justice, Action & Hope." We are especially looking for interactive panels, workshops, and masterclasses that address issues around eco-justice and effective action in the world. Proposals are peer-reviewed. An honorarium is provided for those accepted for the conference. Please consider offering a workshop panel or master class.

Submit a Proposal

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 11:59 pm Wednesday, January 12, 2022, Central U.S. Time.

I am not sure how many zoom meetings, webinars or casual conversations I have had over the past few weeks in which a question has been raised about what does the election mean for environmental professionals in 2021. For the past three years, NAEP has been keeping our professionals up to date with Advanced NEPA Workshops, 10 webinars a year, the NAEP annual conferences, Eblasts, quarterly editions of the Environmental Professionals Bulletin, NEPA/Cultural Resources/Biological Resources working groups, and responding to rule making so that our members have the tools to do their jobs of assessing the environmental effects using science so that the decision makers can make informed decisions. What do I see for 2021? Uncertainty! I do see a positive trend that the new administration is supportive of addressing climate change and basing decisions using science. The new administration’s transition team includes professionals with longtime experience in CEQ. I am hoping that the result is that the scientists, planners and engineers will be part of creating solutions to some of our critical environmental challenges. I do think that NAEP is going to be very busy in 2021 tracking ongoing litigation, proposed legislation, and rule making to ensure that our members have the information in a timely manner to do our jobs. 

NAEP has a podcast and I love it. Environmental Professionals Radio (EPR) is out now, wherever you get your podcasts (please subscribe!). Full disclosure, I am one of the hosts and therefore biased, but I honestly can’t help but smile when I click the Zoom link and start talking to my new friend and co-host, Laura Thorne. Chemistry is something that is impossible to fake and I worried when she pitched the idea to me that we’d struggle to figure that out. I don’t want to make it sound easy (the effort it takes to put on 30 minutes of content once a week is almost exponentially more than I expected) but we are two environmental enthusiasts that enjoy having a conversation about almost anything so it just works.

In the mid-19th century, Henry David Thoreau wrote, “In wildness is the preservation of the world.” This thought marked the beginning of this country’s literary American Renaissance and it became the cornerstone of America’s environmental consciousness. America’s heritage is rich in its regard to the environment. We all associate Thoreau with Walden Pond, and the year spent in a small cabin in the woods near the pond shore. Those of us who have visited Concord, Massachusetts know that Walden Pond is only about a mile from downtown Concord. We also know that about every other day Thoreau walked into town to get provisions, call on friends, or have dinner with his parents. But the words he wrote while living at Walden Pond have inspired us all. Thoreau was one of the first writers to describe his experience with Nature; to experience its beauty, its strength, and the wisdom that comes to you in moments of quiet reflection.