Land Management Agency Discretion :: essays research papers

Agency sagacity towards land management has been an issue since the woodwind instrument Services conception. Gifford Pinchot had visualized local timberers managing lands with ideas and guidelines that have been developed with modern science and conservation in mind. Since then, laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Wilderness shaft and Endangered Species Act have limited the amount of authority and discretion a land management agency has over a particular area. These laws on with the current forest plans under the Land & Resource Management plans under the 1982 Regulations have made it possible for agencies to be subject to public opinion of whether the forest plans are best suited for a particular area and if the agency is successfully implementing these forest objectives.Historically, land management agency discretion has been much greater than present day. Land management was left to scientists and forest professionals who were entrusted with manag ing public forests for the common good. This allowed for land management agencies to act without opposition from conflicting view points. But during the 1960s and 70s, America started to question the federal government and science. With the passage of NEPA, the public became more involved with policy decision making and opened agencies up to lawsuits and litigation. consort to National Forest System Land & Resource Management Planning (1982 Regulations) Sec. 219.6, the intent of public participation in the National Forest system is to draw out the information base upon which land and resource management planning decisions are made. It is also the intent to ensure that the Forest Service understands the needs, concerns and values of the public. NEPA requires that the Forest Service issues Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), hold public comment periods, and issue a description of the proposed planning action that is available to the public. Though this limits agency discretion to wards public lands, it is the values of the public that dictate how public lands should be managed.Americas National Forests and public lands are intended to represent the publics values and interests. With the requirement that the land management agencies issue EIS reports, land management discretion has been limited. Not only are the agencies required to report the current environmental health of a proposed area, but offer alternative plans as well. NEPA has held agencies accountable for how the publics National Forests are managed. No longer could agencies, at their own discretion, choose which the best way to manage public lands is whether or not it coincides with what the public wants out of its lands.

Life After Brain Injuries Essay -- Biology Essays Research Papers

Life After Brain Injuries Are We Still the Same People?During the summer of my junior year, a friend of mine, we will call her Jen, got into a horrible car accident. Apparently sitting in the middle of the backseat, only strapped in with a lap belt, my friend hit her head on the location window, smashing the window upon impact. After 3 weeks of being in a coma, my friend eventually recovered. Even though she was deemed physically healed, my friend was truly never the same. Not only had her demeanor and interests changed, but also it seemed as if she had become a completely different person after her accident. I thought it rattling sad at the time, because the friends who had been close to her before were no longer close. I did not understand what they meant when they said that she had become a different person. Certainly, I completed that she had changed, but I could not fathom that she was now so different that they could no longer treat her like the old Jen. I believed that this new Jen was relieve the same person as before-that the inner soul with which they had become friends had never and, indeed, could never change. However, after reading Descartes Error Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, by Antonio R. Damasio, I trouble the harsh judgments I made about Jens friends. Dealing with some ane who has suffered from a tremendous change in personality is not as easy as one would expect.Descartes, a famous philosopher, once made the statement, Cogito ergo sum (6). Like, Descartes, I previously believed that a separation between the mind and ones body existed. I believed that the mind of an individual was his or her soul and that the brain and body were just the machinery used to share that soul with the outside worl... ...rror, New York Avon Books, Inc., 1994, a great intelligence with much about Phineas Gage and other Brain injury victims6) Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, Indianapolis, Indiana Hackett Publishing Co., Inc., 1998, cant read one without the other7)Athiest Site, a site dedicated to atheism that explores some of the questions this paper raiseshttp//serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro02/web2/www.abarnett.demon.co.uk/atheism/brain.html8)American University, a site outlining the neurospychology of emotionhttp//serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro02/web2/www.american.edu/bfantie/teaching/neuropsych/fundamentals/lectures/emotion.html9)University of Northern Iowa, a site dedicated to the effects of different injuries to the brain http//serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro02/web2/www.uni.edu/walsh/front.html

Susan Smith :: essays research papers fc

Susan Smith     In the blink of an eye, North America was informed of Susan Smithstragic loss of her two young boys. No one would rescue guessed that such aviolent crime could have occurred in a small township . Throughout the ordeal ,police began to see the flaws in Susan Smiths story. This fleet to suspicions,causing the police to make Susan Smith their prime suspect. Days later, SusanSmith confessed to the hideous crime she committed, leaving the nation indisgust. The actions of Susan Smith, which were based on her stress and theevents in question have left a profound social and legal impact on societysviews of violent crimes.     Susan Smith lived what most would consider a normal life up to the timebefore the event concerning the murder of her two children. The onlyexceptional incident in her past was the suicide of her sire when she waseight years old. Susan met her future spouse David Smith, at the age of nine-teen. The couple late r went on to have two children, Michael and Alex. Shewas described as "well-known and well-liked" by her friends, neighbours andrelatives. None of her friends or neighbours could have expected Susan Smith tocommit such a horrible crime.     The event took place in a small town in sexual union, South Carolina. OnOctober 25th Susan Smith explained that she was "heading east on Highway 49 whenshe stopped at a red illuminance at Monarch Mills about 915 p.m., and a man jumpedinto the passenger seat." She described the man "as a black male person in his late20s to early 30s, wearing a plaid shirt, jeans and a toboggan-type hat." Shesaid that the abductor held her at gun point and told her to drive. She drovenortheast of Union for about 4 miles. Then the man suddenly told her to stop thecar. Mrs. Smith said she asked if she should pull over, but the man said for herto stop in the marrow of the road. She claimed that she begged for the releaseo f her two children, who were still strapped in the back seat, but it was to noavail. The town sent out thousands of volunteers to search through "over five vitamin C square miles for the children." The story later went national butthere was still no sign of the children or the attacker. The town Sheriff, JohnWells, with the help of an FBI computer formation went after every lead that camein from psychics, crackpots and well-meaning citizens.