These questions come from elected officials, business people, homeowners, and farmers, as well as agency personnel at all levels.
Questions come from both rural and urban people.
They emerge from problem settings such as siting of unwanted waste facilities, overgrazing of public lands, contaminated water supplies, and protection of desirable natural resource amenities such as wetlands and woodlands. Farmers are faced with the challenges of urban encroachment and business owners are faced with the challenge of increasing environmental regulation. The issues are multifaceted and the stakeholders are at all levels of society. Awareness that the environment is a legacy to be left to future generations is high, but the knowledge as to the best way to do that without compromising the needs of current populations is sketchy. The need for a nonbiased, nonregulatory source of current and accurate environmental information has never been greater.