(a) FSA will:

(1) Use all practical means to protect and, where possible, improve the quality of the human environment and avoid or minimize any adverse environmental effects of FSA actions;

(2) Ensure protection of basic resources, including important farmlands and forestlands, prime rangelands, wetlands, floodplains, and other protected resources. Consistent with Departmental Regulations and related Executive Orders, it is FSA policy not to approve or fund proposed actions that, as a result of their identifiable impacts, direct, indirect, or cumulative, would lead to or accommodate either the conversion of these land uses or encroachment upon them.

(3) Ensure that the requirements of NEPA and other State and national environmental policies designed to protect and manage impacts on the human environment are addressed:

(i) As required by 40 CFR 1501.2, at the earliest feasible stage in the planning of any FSA action,

(ii) Concurrently and in a coordinated manner,

(iii) During all stages of the decision making process,

(iv) Using professional and scientific integrity in their discussions and analyses, identifying applicable methodologies, and explaining the use of the best available information, and

(v) In consultation with all interested parties, including Federal, State, and Tribal governments;

(4) As appropriate, make environmental review available to the public through various means, which can include, but are not limited to: Posting on the National FSA Web site or a State FSA Web site, publishing in the Federal Register, or publishing in a newspaper in the area of interest; and

(5) Ensure that, if an FSA proposed action represents one of several phases of a larger action, the entire action is the subject of an environmental review independent of the phases of funding. If the FSA proposed action is one segment of a larger action, the entire action will be used in determining the appropriate level of FSA environmental review.

(b) A proposed action that consists of more than one categorically excluded proposed action may be categorically excluded only if all components of the proposed action are included within one or more categorical exclusions and trigger no extraordinary circumstances. The component of a proposed action that requires the highest level of NEPA review will be used to determine the required level of the NEPA review.