Publication Highlights 15 Years of Successful Environmental Stewardship Practices
For the past 15 years, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has highlighted environmental stewardship practices from around the country in its Successes in Stewardship newsletter. With the publication of the August 2016 issue, Successes in Stewardship marks 15 years and 181 issues that have documented the successes of federal, state, tribal, and local partners in protecting water quality, wetlands, wildlife, historical sites, cultural areas, and parks while accelerating the completion of transportation projects nationwide.
Since the publication began, Volpe has written and distributed the content on behalf of FHWA.
Each newsletter has covered a process, agreement, resource, or partnership that was improved or innovative at the time. Every highlighted topic was selected in part because it provided a path toward long-lasting positive effects on environmental review processes in transportation decision making.
The special 15th anniversary issue revisits successful project work with three state Departments of Transportation (DOT)—one each from the newsletter’s inaugural year (2001), 5th anniversary year (2006), and 10th anniversary year (2011)—to achieve the following:
- Streamline Section 404 wetlands permitting across Michigan
- Preserve a historic battlefield site during a bridge mitigation project in South Carolina
- Advance mitigation planning at a regional scale in California
In the long term, all three state DOTs have established and strengthened relationships within their agencies and with outside partners. This has led to more collaborative and efficient organizational cultures in addition to faster project delivery and improved environmental outcomes.
Read the full August 2016 issue of Successes in Stewardship, "Featured Streamlining Practices Are Still Yielding Benefits: Five, Ten, and Fifteen Years Later," to learn about the lasting results of these state DOT projects and the key to long-term successes in stewardship.
To mark this milestone, FHWA and Volpe have also assembled an infographic with some facts and figures on what has transpired since the inaugural issue was released:
