Interning at ESA: An Interview with Deja Newton University of San Francisco Environmental Management undergraduate and recent Northern California intern, Deja Newton, tells us about her experience at ESA and what she learned and benefited from while she was here. Read More »

Webinar Replay: Reimagine San Geronimo Learn more about the restoration efforts underway at San Geronimo and ESA’s involvement by watching the full webinar replay from The Trust for Public Land. Read More »

Tim Sturtz, PhD, Joins ESA as Principal Air Quality Specialist Tim Sturtz, PhD, one of the Northwest region’s top air quality experts, has joined ESA. Tim will be providing expertise in air quality assessment and management, including greenhouse gas analyses and odor assessments. Read More »

President’s Letter This year in particular, I am comforted by the natural cycles and rhythms that remain steady and grounding—the daily sunrise, the lengthening of days after the Winter Solstice, our instinct to help one another. I have also found reasons to be grateful that this year was anything but “business as usual”—patterns have been disrupted, mobility restricted, and busyness throttled. While destabilizing, this has been a time of paring down and waking up. Read More »

Reducing Risks in Airports During a Pandemic As the world continues to navigate the impacts of COVID-19, ESA is committed to helping the aviation industry establish health and safety protocols for its employees and passengers. Read a brief synopsis of the briefing and find the full PDF in this story. Read More »

More Than Meets the Eye (or Nose): A Q&A with Air Quality Specialist Heidi Rous We caught up with our very own air quality, climate change adaptation, and health risk assessment expert, Heidi Rous, CPP, to find out the answers to some commonly asked questions about the sight and smell of smoke and how this situation relates to our health. Read More »

A Holistic Approach to Healthier Rivers See how our restoration team is starting to think of waterways as patients, and how a holistic approach to their long-term health will be infinitely more beneficial than the “band-aid” approach. Read More »

SCAG Climate Adaptation Guidebook Released The full SCAG guidebook has been released, providing steps cities and counties can take to better prepare their communities for climate change impacts. Read More »

The State of Recycled Water in California As demands increase and water sources are constricted by climate change and increasing environmental awareness, water supply planners in the state continue to manage the co-equal goals of water supply reliability and environmental protection. Find out how recycled water plays into this equation. Read More »

ESA’s 2020 Scholarship Program Recipients We are honored to present three students – Jessica Brown, Sierra Red Bow and Victor Lopez – with the inaugural ESA Scholarship Program grants, established at the end of last year to commemorate our 50th anniversary. Read More »

Restored and Resilient: Bay Point Regional Shoreline Opens In a year where outdoor recreation has been the key to good health, the East Bay Regional Park District has announced that the long-awaited Bay Point Regional Shoreline will open to the public in November. Read More »

ESA’s Sacramento Office Ranked 2020 Best Places to Work ESA’s Sacramento office was ranked as one of the “2020 Best Places to Work” in the medium-sized company category by the Sacramento Business Journal. Read More »

New Jersey Passes an Environmental Justice Law with Teeth New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed S232 into law, mandating environmental justice impact statements for certain facilities requiring permits from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Learn more about this means for their residents and beyond. Read More »

Senate Bill 288: What It Means for the Transportation Market Are you aware of the newest legislation impacting California transportation projects? Read our summary and download our fact sheet by clicking here. Read More »

ESA Welcomes Ruta K. Thomas as Southern California Regional Director ESA announces the arrival of our new Southern California Regional Director: Ruta K. Thomas. Read More »

Chase Center Achieves LEED Gold Certification and Receives Award Just a year after its opening, San Francisco’s Chase Center, home to the NBA Golden State Warriors, has some good news to share: it has achieved the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Certification for Building Design and Construction: New Construction. Read More »

Join ESA at the 2020 APA California Virtual Conference We are excited to be at the APA California Virtual Conference September 14-16. This year’s conference is centered around the theme of “State of Change.” Read more to see how to connect with us! Read More »

President’s Letter In the face of uncertainty and change, we look for ways to remain resilient—for each of our employee-owners at the firm, and especially, for our clients. Read More »

Michael Newland Receives SCA’s 2020 Presidential Award In recognition of his participation and co-leadership of the extensive volunteer efforts to reunite families with the cremains of their loved ones after the devastating California fire seasons starting in 2017, Michael Newland has been awarded the 2020 President’s Award by the Society for California Archaeology (SCA). Read More »

Gauges and Boilers: Georgetown Steam Plant Artifact Inventory “When I got the call from Seattle City Light (City Light) about the Georgetown Steam Plant project, I knew it would be the project of a lifetime. It would put my 16 years of experience cataloging museum objects, inventorying cramped basements, and handling irreplaceable objects to the ultimate test at one of Seattle’s oldest and most iconic buildings.” Read More »

ESA Welcomes Jon Ambrose as Principal Associate in Seattle Environmental Science Associates (ESA), a leading community planning and environmental consulting firm, welcomes Jon Ambrose to its Northwest team as Principal Associate in the firm’s Environmental Hydrology and Design team. Read More »

Join ESA at the Restore America’s Estuaries 2020 Summit Join a few of ESA’s habitat restoration experts―Doug Robison, PWS, Tom Ries, and John Bourgeois―as they present or serve as panelists at the annual RAE Summit. Read More »

ESA Airports Specialists Host Online Course at UC Davis Join ESA’s Steve Alverson, Senior Vice President, and Chris Jones, Principal Associate, at their online course through the University of California at Davis that focuses on airport land use compatibility and how it affects local land use planning. Read More »

ESA Promotes Chris Lockwood to Cultural Resources Business Group Director A key member of the ESA Cultural Resources team since joining in 2012, Chris Lockwood, PhD, RPA, has been promoted to the role of Business Group Director for the Northwest Region. Read More »

We Made the List!
ENR Ranks ESA in Top 30 All-Environmental Firms According to the July 2020 release from Engineering News Record, ESA ranks as number 21 of the Top 30 All-Environmental Firms. Read More »

How California Plans to Address Its Housing Crisis As the State of California works to address a multitude of challenges facing the economy and its residents’ quality of life, there is broad agreement that the state’s astonishing cost of living and accelerating homeless problem is exacerbated by a shortage of housing, specifically housing attainable to residents at lower income levels. The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has been developing policies in response to California’s current housing challenges. ESA is on the forefront of these efforts. Read More »

CEQ’s Final Rule Modernizing Its NEPA Implementing Regulations For the first time in 40 years, the federal government—via the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)—has revised the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Read More »

More People, Limited Resources: How Florida Is Proactively Managing Public Drinking Water Supply In addition to traffic congestion and the need for improved roadways, population growth in Florida has driven increased demand for drinking water. Learn how ESA is balancing the availability of freshwater supplies with the needs of people and the natural environment. Read More »

Seawall Height in Broward County: The Long and Short of It Most of the developed waterfronts in this part of the country have seawalls to protect the adjacent man-made infrastructure and transition from land to water. However, seawalls are vulnerable to water intrusion and have limited life spans. Many were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s and are in need of replacement. Read about Broward County’s approach to sea-level rise. Read More »

World Landscape Architecture Month ESA’s landscape architecture team has been combining design, planning, and natural resources—rooted in science—to create, enrich, and build the places we love to be. We want to take this moment to celebrate some of our talented team members and their award-winning projects. Read More »