Ken makes good points on everything. The categorical exclusion (CatEx)was brought in to (I think...) just find a way to do small routine projects without a lot of paperwork. It really is a timesaver. You've always got routine trail maintenance and need some way to just be able to do it with the fewest hoops possible. But, in NPS anyway, the emphasis is on small. I was involved in designing and getting a new ranger cabin built in Kings. Since it was going to be the same size as the old one and put on the exact same site, we looked at CatEx as the way to do it quickly. It was decided, though, that it was really too big a project with too many questions and potential impacts on wilderness (should it be replaced in the first place; do we need ranger stations?? etc.), so an EA was written. Slowed it down by years, but was the right way to go.
CatEx could have worked but,if someone objected, the whole thing could have blown up like this USFS case. It is a sausage thing though. I'm hopeful they'll just come up with some blanket announcement for public input on small and related projects with a comment period of 30 days or something; and standards on what constitutes a major project requiring better analysis and public input.
g.
