ABSTRACT
If you are reading this, good for you. Either you are an environmental assessor, or you are preparing to become one. You have chosen to make a difference in the environment. Environmental assessment is a process of generating and presenting scientific information to inform environmental management decisions. By turning data into actionable information, you address hazards to humans and to nonhuman organisms, populations, communities, and ecosystems from agents in the environment. You should be aware of the type of assessment that you are charged with and its relationship to any prior or future assessments. In general, your assessment may determine environmental conditions, causes of impairments, effects of management actions, and outcomes of actions to address causes of new potential hazards. Each of these assessment types may stand alone or may be part of a series of assessments. Some assessments are distinctive in that they deal with distinct inferences or concerning novel environmental problems.
