This publication presents a non-prescriptive conceptual framework for integrating infrastructure development and ecosystem conservation to harmonize economic, environmental, and social needs and objectives. Eco-Logical: An Ecosystem Approach to Infrastructure Project Development was produced by an 8 agency steering team, lead by FHWA Montana Division Administrator, Jan Brown. In addition to FHWA, the team included representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA National MarineFisheries, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and the US Forest Service. Each of these agencies have signed Eco-Logical, many at the Director or Administrator level to indicate their endorsement of the concepts it contains.

Eco-Logical presents a non-prescriptive conceptual framework for integrating infrastructure development and ecosystem conservation to harmonize economic, environmental, and social needs and objectives. Over the last several decades, an understanding of how infrastructure - the basic facilities needed for the functioning of a community or society - can impact habitat and ecosystems has grown. Awareness of how to better avoid, minimize, and mitigate these impacts has also matured. The ecosystem approach contained in Eco-Logical shifts the Federal government's traditional focus on individual agency jurisdiction to the integrated actions of multiple agencies. It emphasizes increased voluntary contributions from all stakeholders, including the public, to a collaboratively developed vision of desired future conditions that incorporates ecological, economic, and social factors. It is applied within a geographic framework defined primarily by ecological rather than political boundaries.

Eco-Logical is an important tool for strengthening the link between transportation planning and NEPA. The book discusses methods to include new and non-traditional stakeholders and information in transportation planning and project decisions. Eco-Logical also provides many useful links to best practices, State Wildlife Action Plans and other resources to help State DOT's and MPO's incorporate the new environmental consultation requirements of SAFETEA-LU section 6001 into their transportation plans.

External Links:

More Information: www.environment.fhwa.dot.gov/ecological/eco_index.asp