EXPERIENCE

With over 30 years of experience in the western United States, Pacific Southwest has a broad range and depth of expertise in biological issues. The firm’s extensive regulatory and legislative background includes the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, California Environmental Quality Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, National Historic Preservation Act, California Fish and Game Code, and California Coastal Act. Pacific Southwest has prepared and managed over 5,000 biological studies, in excess of 900 mitigation analysis/feasibility studies, more than 190 public services/infrastructure analyses, and over 350 studies regulated by the Federal Endangered Species Act. Pacific Southwest’s credentials extend beyond plant and animal identification and location issues. They include a systematic knowledge of floristic and faunal associations related to geographic, soil, and climatic situations. Staff biologists have expertise in local, regional, and national resources, and in-depth knowledge of biological constraints imposed by the presence of sensitive species and habitats.

Key Pacific Southwest staff has experience nation-wide conducting vegetation studies, collecting wildlife population baseline data, and performing habitat analyses and evaluations.

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GENERAL AREAS OF BIOLOGICAL SERVICES

Pacific Southwest commits substantial professional resources to the preparation of the following documentation:

   Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
   Environmental Assessment (EA) and Initial Studies (IS)
   Environmental Impact Report (EIR)
   Regulatory compliance and permitting

Pacific Southwest’s staff members have experience in the interpretation and application of regulations for the preparation of EA’s and EIS’s for the following agencies:

   Department of Defense (DOD)
   Department of Energy (DOE)
   Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
   U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
   U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs

The successful completion of activities affecting biological issues for complex projects often requires a multidisciplinary approach. Pacific Southwest coordinates multidisciplinary projects by complementing our in-house staff capabilities with affiliates specializing in remote sensing, hydrology and water quality, air quality, noise, soils, range science, archaeology, paleontology, geographic information systems (GIS), hazardous materials (HAZMAT), land use planning, and community relations.

Pacific Southwest provides a full range of environmental resource analyses for clients, and furnishes extensive expertise in natural resource-based legislation, resource and regulatory agency interface and permit processing, and habitat restoration and management.

BIOLOGICAL SITE ASSESMENTS:

   Regional and site-specific biotic resource and habitat mapping
   Rare, threatened, and endangered plant and animal species surveys
   Wetlands inventories and delineations
   Habitat restoration design and implementation
   Biological water quality treatment and Best Management Practice programs
   Terrestrial habitat surveys and investigations
   Ecological literature searches
   Ecological impact analyses
   Resource and regulatory agency liaison
   NEPA and CEQA documentation
   Support for large environmental projects or third party review
   Due diligence surveys and consultation
   Management of sensitive habitat preserves
   Intensive field investigations
   Expert witness testimony

SPECIALIZED SERVICES

   Botany
   Ecology
   Wetlands and aquatic resources
   Habitat management
   Endangered species planning and management
   Regulatory issues

BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
   Analysis of biological and environmental issues
   Field, computer database, and laboratory research
   Data analysis
   Recommended actions, designs, methodologies, or alternatives

BIOLOGICAL SURVEYS, ANALYSIS, AND MONITORING
   Wildlife and vegetation inventories
   Productivity determination
   Habitat enhancement
   Habitat evaluation
   Habitat management
   Habitat mapping
   Habitat restoration design
   Remote sensing
   Ecosystem trends and changes
   Verification of previous surveys for applicability, habitat change, and stability
   Biological due diligence/compliance
   Revegetation
   Rare, threatened, endangered, or unique species

EFFECTS, PREDICTION, AND ANALYSIS

   Changes in biological populations
   Habitat modification
   Habitat fragmentation & isolation

HABITAT RESTORATION

   Wetland habitat creation or enhancement for impact mitigation
   Water quality treatment and marsh creation
   Endangered plant transplantation and animal relocation
   Habitat maintenance involving specialized plant eradications


BIOLOGICAL DOCUMENTATION

   Impact analyses and determination of significance
   Beneficial and adverse impacts, including those unavoidable
   Impacts to rare, threatened, endangered, or otherwise unique species
   Mitigation development
   Alternative projects, sites, and design
   Preparation of biological assessments in compliance with Section 7 consultation of the Endangered Species
    Act
   Cumulative impact analysis
   Siting studies

PERMIT APPLICATIONS AND AGENCY LIAISON
   Section 404 Clean Water Act (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)
   Section 401 Clean Water Act (Regional Water Quality Control Board)
   National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permits
   Stormwater (Nonpoint Source) Permits
   Section 1600 et seq. Fish and Game Code of California (California Department of Fish and Game Streambed
Alteration Agreement)
   Section 7/Section 10 Endangered Species Act Consultation/Permits Adverse and Beneficial Impacts
   Local Jurisdictional Permits

EXPERT WITNESS TESTIMONY
   Public hearings, commissions, and courts
   Local, state, and federal courts


NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Pacific Southwest has prepared several large-scale resource assessments which have either included or provided the basis for large-scale habitat management plans. The Western Riverside Multiple-Species Habitat Conservation Plan Data Collection and Evaluation Phase involved vegetation mapping, land use and ownership analyses, Coastal California Gnatcatcher sampling surveys, and habitat suitability modeling in a study area of 1.4 million acres.

Pacific Southwest has over eight years of experience on San Clemente Island. This began with the San Clemente Island Endangered Species Recovery Plan, which was the first ecosystem-based endangered species recovery plan in the United States. This program was followed by additional studies, including San Clemente Island Rare Plant Investigations and the San Clemente Island Fire Management Plan. In the San Clemente Island Natural Resource Management Plan, Pacific Southwest updated and addressed all of the natural resources management issues of the island. Pacific Southwest botanists discovered two plant species on the island which were previously thought to be extinct.

As part of the El Centro Naval Air Station East and West Mesas Study, Pacific Southwest used aerial photographs to map biological resources and vegetation communities on 500 square miles of the facility. Information collected provided biological resource data in support of a comprehensive land management plan. More recently, Pacific Southwest formulated a Habitat Management Plan for the San Diego County Water Authority’s Crestridge Mitigation Site. The firm’s site manager worked with The Environmental Trust to provide on-site management and Coastal California Gnatcatcher monitoring surveys.

Pacific Southwest has extensive involvement with project mitigation, especially as it relates to wetlands and rare plant issues. Hands-on experience in rare plant transplantation and wetlands habitat restoration has resulted in the completion of over 120 acres of wetlands restoration projects in southern California. Numerous species of rare plants have been transplanted, some of which have required substantial microhabitat modification. The San Jacinto Salt Marsh and Riparian Woodland Restoration Project and the San Dieguito Estuary Enhancement Plan for the City of Del Mar, California Coastal Conservancy, and California Department of Fish and Game provided several innovative mitigation opportunities to our clients.

In 1987, Pacific Southwest designed a silt curtain system which received U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approval for use within the California Least Tern nesting season, thus allowing in-water construction within a period otherwise closed to general construction activities. The firm has further conducted California Least Tern nesting colony monitoring and maintenance and foraging studies on the species within San Diego Bay. Pacific Southwest completed a substantial avian flight pattern study within the San Diego Bay waterfront area of the Chula Vista Bayfront. This investigation included over 6.3 million pieces of information collected over an eight-month period, involving more than 2,500 hours in the field.

Pacific Southwest designs and implements native habitat and restoration and revegetation projects. The firm approaches the goals and problems inherent in revegetation with an understanding of the natural systems and the habitat requirements of the flora and fauna within these biotic systems. Further, this ecological approach to habitat restoration allows for consideration of details not normally encountered in typical landscaping. For instance, as experienced southern California botanists, zoologists, and ecologists, the staff is acutely aware of the effects of dramatically fluctuating surface and groundwater conditions on vegetation, the impacts of gradual versus rapid accretion and erosion, and the effects of fertilizers on native wetlands. Pacific Southwest projects are designed and implemented in a manner that ensures survival of the target vegetation after the artificial support of irrigation, fertilizer, and weeding has ended. The firm has successfully designed and implemented riparian woodland, freshwater marsh, coastal salt marsh, eelgrass meadow, and coastal upland restoration projects, operating under Landscape Contractor License No. C-531247.