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Seeking Water Resources Engineer
We're looking for a PE-licensed Water Resources Engineer with 3+ years of experience to join our team. Pass it on! Specs on our careers page.
Staff Kudos: Spring 2012
It's time for some kudos to our great staff:
Courtney Landoll, PLA, LEED Green Associate
Landscape Architect Courtney Landoll, PLA, LEED Green Associate, successfully chaired the 2012 Washington Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (WASLA) Conference, Changing Convention, which took place March 29th in Lynnwood. The Conference registered 280 participants an increase of 124 participants from the previous year, and raised $17,000 for the Chapter. Proceeds from the conference support the Chapter’s ongoing activities and help fund student scholarships. Courtney continues to support WASLA as Executive Committee (EC) Member at Large and EC representative for the Professional Development Committee, roles she has held since 2009. She is also serving on the 2013 WASLA Conference Committee.
Nell Lund, PWS
Ecologist Nell Lund, PWS, is now certified as a Professional Wetland Scientist, a certification that requires a combination of specific university-level education and at least 5 years of experience. Nell achieved the certification within the shortest possible amount of time. With her certification, we now have five Professional Wetland Scientists on staff!
Congratulations on your hard work, ladies!
Happy Holidays and New Year!
Wishing you the best in the new year! In the picture: The Watershed Company staff at a wetland mitigation site on Novelty Hill in Redmond, WA, where we have been helping Puget Sound Energy.
Watershed Hires Water Resources Manager and Landscape Designer
The Watershed Company recently welcomed two new staff members, expanding our capacity in engineering and landscape architecture: Sky Miller, PE, as Water Resources Manager, and Marina French as Landscape Designer.
Sky Miller, P.E., Water Resources Manager
Known for his leadership in developing and implementing strategic ecologically sustainable infrastructure, floodplain and habitat restoration plans and designs, Sky is highly skilled at managing multidisciplinary teams of scientists, engineers and planners. He is an effective public speaker, administrator and engineer and brings a collaborative style to solve complex environmental problems in a fast-paced, public, political, legal and controversial environment. Sky joined The Watershed Company in 2011 from Wildlands, Inc., a regional mitigation and conservation banking firm, where he was the Pacific Northwest regional manager. He is also the former Surface Water division manager at Skagit County. Recent projects with construction completed include the 300-acre Nookachamps Wetland Bank on the Skagit River, and Hylebos Creek Estuary Restoration in Tacoma, Washington.
Marina French, Landscape Designer
Marina French (formerly Alvarez) combines her training and experience in ecology and landscape design to plan and create living spaces that integrate human and natural elements. She has developed management and recreational plans for regional, state and national parks areas and participated in the site design of projects throughout the West and internationally. Her assessments optimize the human experience while achieving goals for environmental and cultural preservation. Marina recently joined The Watershed Company from Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects. She is enjoying mitigation design and putting on her boots to monitor projects after installation. In addition to a steady stream of mitigation projects and private residential design projects, Marina is currently working on a site plan for the 42nd Street End Park for the City of Yarrow Point, and the exciting mixed-use Ballard Greenfire Campus plan, which includes green roofs, p-patches, and a stormwater biofiltration garden.
Watershed Wildlife Biologist Certified by The Wildlife Society
The Watershed Company's Senior Wildlife Biologist Suzanne Tomassi has recently been certified by The Wildlife Society as a "Certified Wildlife Biologist", their highest level of certification. The certification represents her "educational background and demonstrated expertise in the art and science of applying the principles of ecology to the conservation and management of wildlife and its habitats". Congratulations, Suzanne!
Watershed Staff to Present at SMP Workshop
Amy Summe, Environmental Planner at The Watershed Company, will be presenting at a Law Seminars International workshop on Shoreline Master Program Updates on December 7 in Seattle. She will be part of a discussion on requirements and experiences with the analysis report, no net loss, cumulative impacts analysis, and restoration plan elements.
Amy has been involved with more than 25 Shoreline Master Program updates, and is currently leading updates for Chelan County and the Cities of North Bend and Carnation, as well as four Lake Washington communities. As part of the SMP update process, Amy and Watershed staff participate in public involvement proceedings and prepare reports, GIS maps, restoration plans, and updated SMP documents.
Seminar Details
What: A Comprehensive One-Day Seminar on Shoreline
Master Program Updates: Current developments and practical guidance for
compliance
Where: Sheraton Seattle Hotel, in
Seattle, WA
When: December 7, 8:00AM - 6:00PM; Amy's
segment begins at 10:15AM
For more details, please visit the Law
Seminars International website.
Watershed Staff Volunteers with Papua New Guinea Bird Study
Senior Wildlife Biologist Suzanne Tomassi spends much of her free time working as an ornithologist with the non-profit organization Puget Sound Bird Observatory, of which she is a founding member and active board member, and traveling to far-away places to study birds. This year she traveled to Papua New Guinea for 6 weeks. She shares a little about her trip below:
This spring I had the great privilege of assisting Dr. Bruce Beehler, Vice President of the Indonesia-Pacific Islands research program of Conservation International, on a climate change study in Papua New Guinea's YUS Conservation Area. The study is looking at a number of taxa, including plants, along an elevational transect on the island. The YUS Conservation Area is the first of its kind, implemented after years of hard work by the Woodland Park Zoo's Tree Conservation Program and Dr. Lisa Dabek. Dr. Beehler's work focuses on birds, and I mist-netted from about 2,400m, to 3,010m, cataloging species occurrences.
The species diversity is not all that high at that elevation. We caught more than 100 individuals on some days, and a total of 910 birds, comprising 42 species. Our captures included many endemics and near-endemics, isolated by the high mountain peaks of the Finisterre range on the Huon Peninsula. Spangled honeyeater, Huon bowerbird, lesser melampitta and Huon Melidectes all ended up in our nets, and we encountered the emperor bird of paradise, Wahnes' bird of paradise, Meyer's goshawk, and many others on our long hikes between camps. Each species was a life-lister for me. Altogether, we recorded 12 species outside of their previously reported range.
The transect runs from sea level to more than 3,000m, and nowhere was that elevation change more evident than along the trails we traversed! Despite having local porters carry our supplies, the walking was challenging, to say the least. There are no roads, and trails are steep, slippery, and subject to landslides, and often cross raging rivers in deep ravines. Our travels were at the whim of the many local clans; fortunately, our hosts were gracious as well as fascinating.
As excruciating as it would become to eat the tubers manioc and 'kao kao' day after day, we were never wanting for new experiences. Whether extracting a new and wholly unfamiliar bird from a net, witnessing a "Sing-Sing" celebration in honor of World Environment Day, awakening to earthquakes five times in one week, or waiting two days with no communication when the bush plane failed to pick me up, every moment was incomparable to anything I'd ever participated in before. I'm grateful that the people of Papua New Guinea are working together to protect the YUS Conservation Area, and I look forward to another trip up the transect to further document the ranges of the Huon's unique avifauna.
