Types of questions that will be asked and answered:

• What is an extraordinary circumstance that would take an action normally excluded out of consideration for categorical exclusion?
• Is a no-action alternative absolutely necessary in an environmental assessment?
• What is an environmental baseline?
• What is an appropriate alternative for a proposal involving unresolved conflicts over alternative uses of available resources? 
• What is an adverse environmental effect that cannot be avoided?
• When is an issue or matter relevant and when is it not?
• What is the threshold for supplementing an EA?
• Can a programmatic EIS on a long-term plan of actions be supplemented with dozens, scores, or even hundreds of EAs/FONSIs on the many actions that implement the plan of actions over time?  If the plan of actions has significant consequences, at what point does the accumulation of implementing actions become significant?  

Owen Schmidt

Owen L. Schmidt, BA, MA, JD, has more than 32 years of service with the Federal Government. He has served as Senior Counsel with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the General Counsel in Portland, Oregon, where he advised the Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and other USDA agencies in Washington and Oregon. He was also a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Oregon. Before joining USDA in 1991, he was an attorney for the Bonneville Power Administration, where he joined the legal staff after several years as an Environmental Specialist. Mr. Schmidt received his J.D. from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College (1977), and a B.A. (1969) and M.A. (1973) in biology from St. Cloud State University, Minnesota. Mr. Schmidt is a frequent author and lecturer on the National Environmental Policy Act. He served as a Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Book Publication Committee for the Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources and as a Vice President for the Ninth Circuit, The Federal Bar Association. He was the Editor of Oregon Birds, a quarterly journal of Oregon Field Ornithologists, for 14 years (1985-99), and is a long-time member of the Oregon Bird Records Committee.

Pen or pencil, and paper to take notes if you don't want to write in the manual. In person courses will have drinks and snacks provided as current health recommendations allow. Lunch will be on your own.

In order to guarantee a space in a course, the tuition must be paid in full TWO WEEKS before the first day of the course by either check or credit card. State and government agencies paying with a purchase order are allowed payment under the two-week time frame if a copy of the purchase order is received by NWETC.

Cancellations*

• With 31 or more days notice, we will offer a 100% refund or credit towards a future course. The credit is good for one year and may be applied to any course.
• With 30-8 days notice, we will offer a course credit towards a future course. The credit is good for one year and may be applied to any course.
• With fewer than 8 days notice, there is no course credit available

*Please note that attendee replacement is welcome at any time

Disability Accommodations:

To request disability accommodations, please contact us at info@nwetc.org or 425-270-3274 at least 30 days prior to the event.