ESA Expands Mitigation Service Offerings with Two Key Hires Melissa Denena and Katie Dudney bring niche expertise to the firm’s Northern California Biological Resources and Land Management Team. Read More »

The Road to Carbon Neutrality: Deciphering Corporate Carbon Neutral Pledges What does it mean when a company makes a pledge towards “net zero,” “carbon neutral,” or “climate neutral”? There is wide disparity in how these terms are being used, and the devil is in the details. Learn how ESA guides our clients through the terminology so they can achieve clear and actionable targets. With time running out to stabilize the climate, it is ever more critical that these terms have clear meaning and are widely understood by stakeholders. Read More »

The Road to Carbon Neutrality ESA is kicking off a series exploring the “road to carbon neutrality.” ESA’s scientists, engineers, and planners are uniquely qualified to bring strategic technical consulting services to our clients in support of progressing toward a decarbonized economy. Read more about the series here. Read More »

Designed and Delivered: UCSB North Campus Open Space Restoration Project Constructed in 2017, this project is a successful example of a true landscape-scale restoration that integrates habitat enhancements and restoration across a wide range of habitat types. See how this project has been performing since its completion, and what wildlife has started calling it “home.” Read More »

SCAG Framework: Helping Communities Tackle Climate Planning California’s Senate Bill 379 requires cities and counties to incorporate climate adaptation and resiliency strategies into their General Plans. But many communities in Southern California lack the staffing and financial resources to help them prepare ahead of the state’s January 1, 2022 deadline. In order to assist these communities, the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) developed the Regional Climate Adaptation Framework. Read More »

ESA at the 2021 National Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) Coalition Annual Meeting Read More »

Dutch Slough: Charting a Path for the Future of Delta Restoration Located on the Delta’s western edge in Contra Costa County, just east of Oakley, the Dutch Slough Marsh Restoration is more than a typical wetlands restoration project—it’s a first-of-its-kind experiment that is on track to shape and inform the future of estuarine restoration projects throughout the Delta. Read More »

From Intern to Full Time Employee: Meet Michael Gatheru Meet Michael Gatheru—who just received his undergraduate degree from UCLA in Environmental Science. Michael joined ESA as an intern during the Spring 2021 session, and was recently hired on as a full-time employee in our Water group. Read More »

Patricia Fonseca Flores Joins ESA as New Sustainable Design Director Patricia Fonseca Flores, ASLA, LEED AP, has joined ESA as our new Sustainable Design Director. With her 15 years of landscape architecture experience managing landscape, urban design, and planning projects, Patricia will lead the firm’s sustainable design and develop community resilience strategies across all of our practice areas. Read More »

ESA at the 2021 American Planning Association (APA) California Conference We are excited to be at the APA California Virtual Conference, September 13-15. This year’s conference is centered around the theme of “Changing Plans, Changing Planning.” Read More »

Historic Legislative Session Has Big Implications in Washington State The Washington State Legislature passed a two-year $59 billion budget and several major pieces of legislation that included many environmental permitting and regulatory provisions this last spring, and there are two that may impact your project: salmon recovery permitting and the Flood Control Assistance Account Program (FCAAP). Read More »

Join ESA at the 2021 Floodplain Management Association (FMA) Conference We are thrilled to be at the 2021 Floodplain Management Association (FMA) Conference September 7-10. This year’s theme is “Stronger Together! Achieving Continuity in the Face of Recovery in an Equitable and Inclusive Manner.” Read More »

Approach to Resilience Planning A resilience management plan (RMP) helps an organization focus on adopting a highly collaborative, whole-system management approach to put strategies, plans, and processes in place that ensure an airport is able to safely and efficiently maintain the continuity of operations. ESA’s Neal Wolfe offers his approach for how to go about creating one for your airport. Read More »

Designed and Delivered: Calistoga Elementary Biotechnical Streambank Stabilization Our design team has restored many projects, but the dramatic transformation of the Calistoga Elementary Biotechnical Streambank Stabilization is impressive. See how this restoration is performing four years after construction, complete with a beaver dam and native plant revegetation. Read More »

A Template for Airport Resilience A resilience management plan (RMP) provides a systematic, proactive management approach to enhancing an organization’s ability to respond to shock events and address chronic stressors that ensures the integrity of critical physical and human systems, which connect infrastructure and operations. Learn more about RMPs and download our complete Resilience at Airports article for your reference. Read More »

Defining Airport Resilience Resilience is the ability to resist, absorb, and recover from or successfully adapt to adversity or a change in conditions, while still retaining the same controls on function and structure. Read how this applies to today’s airports. Read More »

ESA Bolsters National Airports Practice with Addition of Senior Principal Aviation Specialist, Justin Cook Justin Cook join ESA as Senior Principal Aviation Specialist in its Airports practice. Working from the firm’s Los Angeles office, Justin will support the firm’s nationally-focused noise program and grow ESA’s aviation project portfolio in California, along with recent ESA hire, Jean-Christophe Dick. Read More »

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Specialist Dr. Daniel Swenson Joins ESA Based in the firm’s Los Angeles office, Daniel will work with clients and colleagues across the country to navigate and facilitate the permitting process for projects in a wide variety of industries. He has spent his nearly 20-year career with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), most recently serving as Regulatory Branch Chief for the Baltimore District. Read More »

Volunteering for the Health of Tampa Bay In early April, emergency crews began draining millions of gallons of high-nutrient wastewater from the Piney Point diked storage reservoir in Manatee County, Florida. ESA joined others in the area to volunteer time to monitor the conditions in Tampa Bay. Read More »

Designed and Delivered: West Weaver Creek Each month, fluvial geomorphologist Jason White will check in on one of the many restoration projects that ESA has designed and delivered. We are kicking this series off with a visit to a successful project in Trinity County, California: West Weaver Creek. See how this restoration is performing four years after construction. Read More »

Jill Sunahara Named Director of Biological Resources and Land Management Group in Northern California Jill Sunahara’s more than 20-year career has focused on environmental compliance, regulatory permitting, and project management for a wide variety of natural resource projects across the West Coast. We are happy to announce that she is now ESA’s new Biological Resources and Land Management Business Group Director in our Northern California region. Read More »

ESA Welcomes
Tamseel Mir as Southern California Community Development Director Join us in welcoming Tamseel Mir as Community Development Business Group Director for ESA’s Southern California region. With more than 20 years of experience leading the environmental review process for large-scale planning and development projects across an array of industries, Tamseel takes the helm of the region’s largest group. Read More »

California Airports Team Celebrates Recent Win at Lake Tahoe Airport ESA’s Airports group was recently awarded a five-year environmental on-call contract at Lake Tahoe Airport in South Lake Tahoe, California. Read More »

Katie Carroz, AICP, Joins Community Development Team in Seattle ESA’s Community Development team in the Pacific Northwest continues to grow with the addition of Katie Carroz, AICP, who has joined the team as Senior Environmental Planner in Seattle, Wash. Read More »

Maximize Engagement with a Hybrid Approach to Facilitating Public Meetings Engaging with and educating stakeholders through public meetings is a critical step in a project’s approval process. Many have wondered if the same outcomes could be achieved in a virtual format. Learn how ESA’s public engagement experts pivoted quickly and immersed themselves in making sure virtual public meetings would be a smooth and effective process. Read More »

How the Latest Executive Orders and NEPA Regulations Affect Your Projects We have been keeping an eye on the new Administration’s executive orders to understand the changes to all of our clients’ ongoing and future projects. See what the recent changes may mean to your projects. Read More »

Shannon Wages, AICP, Joins Environmental Science Associates as Principal Associate Read More »

Happy Earth Day to Our Favorite Planet ESA celebrates Earth Day every day at all levels—through the work we do, how we operate, and how each of us appreciates the beauty of our world. Read More »

San Gabriel River Watershed Project Featured by Urban Water Institute Read a recent article co-authored by ESA’s Tom Barnes in a recent issue of UWI’s newsletter. Read More »

Celebrating 20 Years After Crissy Field’s Habitat Restoration The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy is celebrating the 20-year anniversary of the transformative and multifaceted Crissy Field restoration, an incredible public and habitat resource. Read More »