Comprehensive Assignment: Environmental Laws and Land Management

This assignment delves into the realm of U.S. environmental laws and land management practices, covering a range of topics through multiple-choice and short-answer questions. The assignment explores key environmental legislation such as NEPA, CWA, and CAA, and examines the roles of federal agencies like the EPA, BLM, and the U.S. Forest Service. It also investigates the history of land grants, the Public Trust Doctrine, and the concept of "res communes," alongside the evolution of federal policies concerning land acquisition, disposal, and conservation. The questions address the creation and purposes of Land Grant Universities, the significance of the New Deal programs, and the principles of sustainable development. The assignment also touches upon the creation of the Council on Environmental Quality, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the U.S.-Canada border. The provided answers offer a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between law, policy, and environmental stewardship in the United States, making it a valuable resource for students studying environmental science or related fields.

Multiple Choice Questions:
1. What kind of laws are NEPA, CWA, CAA, etc.?
environmental laws of United States.
2. Where/in what federal publication are all significant
administrative/regulatory notices published?
In the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), all the important
administrative as well as regulatory notices are published.
3. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation
Corps
(CCC) were both part of Franklin D. Roosevelt?s ---------------- Program/Policies
which represented a great increase in
federal spending on Public Lands Conservation, Preservation and Public
Infrastructure.
New Deal
4. Who was the member of the U.S. Congress who was the prime sponsor
of/credited for advancing the 1862 law creating the first Land Grant
Universities?
Justin Smith Morrill of Vermon
5. Land Grant Agricultural Colleges created by State Legislatures were
models
for the Federal legislation. Which two States created these model Land Grant
Agricultural Colleges?
Kansas, Ames in lowa
6. What is the ?grandfather act? for the Topic or Registry Acts (title and
year)?
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
1980
7. What is the ?grandfather act? for the Media Acts (title and year)?
Rivers and Harbors Act 1899
8. Land grants from federal and State governments for private/private
sector
individuals/groups/ businesses to give incentives to develop transportation
infrastructure goes all the way back to the late 18th/early 19th Centuries
(1790s on). What type of transportation developers received the greatest
amount
of land *and often timber, coal and water resources) of any of these
developers?

land
9. In 1872, the United States created the first of its major preserved land
areas with the creation of Yellowstone National Park.
10. The two largest (by area) Purchases of Land/Resources in U.S. History
are/were the Louisiana Purchase and Alaskan Purchase?
11. The two most significant Acquisitions via the process of Annexation
are/were Hawaii and Texas?
12. What was the last major attempted acquisition by the U.S. government
(so
far)?
Alaska
13. The original Public Domain came from Cessions of land claims in inland
North America by the original 13 colonies that took or bought them from
the indigenous tribes or from other countries.
14. What was created within the Land Grant University System
(abilities/responsibilities/funding) via the Hatch Act of 1887?
The Agricultural Experiment Stations (AES)
15. What institutions/activities/responsibilities were created within the
Land
Grant University System with the passage of the Smith-Lever Act of 1914?
A system comprising of cooperative extension services
16. Land grants as military bounties/pensions historically goes back in time
at
least to the Roman Empire.
17. What events /circumstances of the late 1920s-1930s lead to a great
increase
in the federal role in funding and promoting Conservation and Preservation
on
both Public and Private Lands?
Environmental issues
18. The EPA is an independent federal agency that was created via?
an executive order given by the President Richard Nixon

19. A phrase that describes the state/sources of federal finances/budgets
from
the founding of the nation into the late 1800s was the United States was
_____land________ rich, and _____financially_________ poor?.
20. Which three (3) federal Departments mange the vast majority of
federal/Public lands?
the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
and the US Fish and Wildlife service.
21. What are the three branches of the U.S. federal government?
executive, legislative and Judicial bodies.
22. The U.S. Constitution defines the duty and responsibility of
governments to
protect Public Health, Safety, Morals and the General Welfare within the
section which is referred to as the general welfare clause.
23. What are the two major types/kinds/classes of U.S. federal
environmental
laws, not including NEPA?
Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act
24. Principles, practices and policies to promote the wise use of natural
resources over time is a basic definition of:
Sustainable development
25. What category/set of activities represented/encompasses the largest
collective disposal of federal lands (the Public Doman)? I.e. what was the
greatest amount of land turned over for?
Total unclassified and homestead dispositions amounting to
591,000,000 acres of land (disposition by public, preemption and
private sales mounting to 303,500,000 acres and granted or sold to
homesteaders for 287,500,000 acres)
26. Setting Lands/Natural Resources/Cultural and Historical Sites aside to
be
protected and for the non-consumptive use and enjoyment into the future
and for
current and future generations is a basic definition of:
Natural resource management.
27. In 1994, Land Grant University status was granted to existing
institutions
within U.S. States and Territories granted Land Grant University Status to
what

type of Colleges and Universities to service indigenous populations?
tribal
28. The Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S.
Fish
and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service are all Agencies which
have
significant land/natural resource management responsibilities and which are
all:
federal land management agencies
29. The U.S. Forest Service is a/an:
An agency belonging to the US Department of the Agriculture.
30. What was the purpose of/need for creating the 2nd Land Grant
University Act
in 1890?
To support the Negro Land Grant institutions of the Southern States.
31. These 6 National Goals are found where (Statute and Title):
1. fulfill the
responsibilities of each generation as trustee of the environment for
succeeding generations; 2. assure for all Americans safe, healthful,
productive, and aesthetically and culturally pleasing surroundings; 3. attain
the widest range of beneficial uses of the environment without degradation,
risk to health or safety, or other undesirable and unintended consequences;
4.
preserve important historic, cultural, and natural aspects of our national
heritage, and maintain, wherever possible, an environment which supports
diversity, and variety of individual choice; 5. achieve a balance between
population and resource use which will permit high standards of living and a
wide sharing of life's amenities; and 6. enhance the quality of renewable
resources and approach the maximum attainable recycling of depleteable
resources:
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
32. The Council on Environmental Quality was created to be in the
Executive
Office of the White House under which part of which statute?
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
33. What act was created to bring a degree of regularity and order to the

administrative practices of the Bureaucracy esp. with regard to rulemaking
and
regulation?
Administrative Procedure Act of 1946
34. The longest land border between two counties in the World, which was
created largely via diplomacy, exists/lies between United States and
Canada.
Short answer questions:
What is the Public Trust Doctrine? What are the three
elements in any legal trust? What/who are these elements in/under the Public
Trust Doctrine?
The Public trust doctrine refers to a legal principle related to the
management of natural resources and quality of environment. Here the state
government acts as the representative or the trustee for protecting the
natural resources.
The three elements present in legal trust are subject, trustee and the
beneficiary or beneficiaries.
In the Public Trust Doctrine, some specific parts of the sovereignty are
allocated by the federal constitution towards the federal government by
means of expressed powers.
1. Define the term ?Acquisition? *as a U.S. Land/Natural Resources Policy.
Identify at least 4 major ways in which lands/resources have undergone
?Acquisition? in U.S. History?
Acquisition is a process by which US had acquired the land areas as
well as the natural resources of the State or Nation and it grew from a mere
13 States to what it is today. The methods of acquisition include war,
conquest, purchase and diplomacy.
The 4 major ways in which lands/resources have undergone Acquisition
in U.S. History are discussed below;
a) The Lousiana purchase of 1803 was done as a negotiation with
Napoleon after which the said territory was acquired from France for about
15 million dollars during that time.
b)The West Florida was taken by the US army after it declared its
independence from Spain in 1980.

c)The Red river of the North was acquired from the British in 1818
under the effect of the Anglo-American Convention(1818).
d)Hawai was acquired in 1959 when the residents of it voted in order
to relinquish their land claims to US and become its state.
2. What the five (5) main types/categories of U.S. federal law?
Militia Act of 1862, National Banking Act of February 25, 1863,
Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act, Immigration Act, National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
3. What are the res communes? What does the term literally mean? What
aspects
of the natural world are covered by it? Where does the concept come
from/where
were they first written down in the law, i.e. who is credited with the concept?
Whose duty is it to protect the res communes and for whom?
Res communes means the natural things like light, air, sea, running
water and others that are common to mankind.
Literally the term means the natural things that are owned by none but
used by all and cannot be subjected to absolute and exclusive appropriation.
4. Identify three purposes for which the U.S. Federal government disposed
of/donated land to States for their sale and/or use to support or provide for
within their borders.
for gaining money, for construction of public improvements, for selling of
lands that are valuable for stone or timber and not fit for cultivation.
5. Define the term ?Disposal? or ?Disposition? as a U.S. Land/Natural
Resources
Policy
The US in the first century was mostly rich in land and poor in money
resources. Hence the federal government collected money by selling land of
the Public domain. This is known as the disposal or disposition. However this
was stopped by enacting the Northwest Ordinance in the year of 1787 and
was finally prohibited in the middle of the 20th Century when the Homestead
Acts was repealed.