Environmental Science Associates

Summer fieldwork must-haves: giant water bottle ✅ UV-protective clothing ✅ wide-brimmed hat ✅ As heat waves continue to roil the US, ESA’s environmental scientists, like biologist Eva Lin (pictured below) are out conducting field work and overseeing environmental compliance monitoring, often dealing with brutal, sizzling heat. 🥵 How do they stay safe and keep cool in these hot temperatures? Eva shares that carrying extra water is an absolute must. “Always keep your water bottle on you, specifically in your safety vest! I also recommend keeping some extra water in your car to avoid running out on hot days—I leave a 1-gallon insulated water jug filled up daily in my car, and it has saved me whenever I run out of water or need to re-wet my cooling towel. Even if you don’t end up needing it, someone else in the field might!” Senior biologist Tamara Klug also practices some advice with her team when it comes to high temperatures—“don’t be a hero," she says. “Heat is a serious risk. Everybody needs to look out for one another and take breaks in the shade and the car with air conditioning as needed.” Other must-haves our crews shared are: - Coolers and ice filled with fizzy water and electrolytes - Sunshades for hard hats - UV protection shirt and pants - Cooling towel - Neck gaiter To all our crews out in the field: thank you for putting your safety first!

ESA’s Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) foster a strong community for employee-owners of all backgrounds, where they can share their experiences, openly discuss issues, and advance our work to make everyone feel welcomed, safe, valued, and accepted. Throughout Pride Month, we asked members of the LGBTQ+ ERG to share what this community means to them, and also what allyship feels like in the workplace. Thanks to Antonette Hrycyk, Brandon Mukogawa, Phong Ly, PE, Joseph Billela, and Dave Davis who shared their perspectives with us. See what they had to say below: #Pride #Pride2024 #EmployeeResourceGroup #EmployeeOwner #DiversityIsOurStrength

🏖️ Birds of a feather flock together—at the beach! Much like beach-goers in the summer, shorebirds love to flock at Florida’s beaches where they settle and find refuge in the sand dunes and coastal habitats. However, they are increasingly facing threats from human disturbance and climate-driven habitat loss. Along Florida’s Gulf Coast, ESA's environmental scientists are monitoring protected species including the American Oystercatcher, Black Skimmer, Least Terns, and Wilson’s Plover—all classified as Imperiled Beach Nesting Birds (IBNB). In Lee County, this monitoring is supporting an emergency shoreline relief effort where crews are working to repair portions of the Sanibel Causeway destroyed by Hurricane Ian, and a boating vessel recovery effort at Bunche Beach. While in Pinellas County, the teams are monitoring IBNB and other types of shorebird activity at the Grand Canal Maintenance Dredging project in Pass-a-Grille, and at the Indian Shores Beach Dune Restoration project. Much of their work involves surveying and recording nesting sites, which blend in with the sand and are hard to spot, and requires a close study of bird behavior. That means looking for clues like footprints, divots in the sand known as “scrapes,” and for the Wilson’s Plover in particular, watching for the “broken wing display” where the birds feign injury, says BJ Quinton, GISP, who recently observed the behavior. “Seeing me as a predator, the bird pretended to be hurt with a broken wing so I would see it as an easy target and be drawn away from the nest,” he said. “The exact location of the nest in this area is not crucial, so I didn’t pursue it further for fear of stressing the adult. But this sort of behavior would be a clue that we do have a nest in the area.” 📷's by BJ Quinton, GISP, and Kristin Maki Jenkins Pinellas County Government Lee County #Shorebirds #Biology #ImperiledBeachNestingBirds #Florida #Birds #CoastalHabitat #ShorelineProtection

From North to South, and East to West, we’ve got dozens of exciting job opportunities “blooming” across our regions! We’re looking for archaeologists, biologists, engineers, GIS analysts, landscape architects, project managers, and many other types of professionals to join us and do work that matters. Check out our open positions and learn what it means to work for a 100-percent employee-owned environmental consulting firm that is committed to justice, equality, diversity, and inclusion, and future-focused to support your career growth and work-life balance. Head to our Job Openings page at: https://lnkd.in/gHT2xMnM 📷: Water Resources Engineer Alaina Floor, PE at a site visit to a sunflower farm outside of Seattle. #JoinUs #WeAreHiring #JobOpenings #EnvironmentalCareers #EmployeeOwnedFirm #WorkThatMatters

With its incredibly vast and intricate network of waterways spanning more than 1,000 miles long, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is a real boaters’ paradise. Unfortunately, dozens of abandoned and derelict vessels have been discarded across local marinas and waterways over the years. The polluting, decaying vessels are causing environmental harm, are a safety hazard, and impede boat traffic and navigation. Working with the California State Lands Commission (CSLC), ESA’s Fish and Aquatic Science team is completing a multi-year survey of the Delta to provide a complete inventory of abandoned and derelict commercial vessels. This data collection and management will provide CSLC up-to-date information informing the environmental and navigational hazards that each boat presents, as it works to remove more than 100 known vessels in the Delta. Find out more about the ongoing work at: https://lnkd.in/g3Rb2Uak #SacramentoDelta #CaliforniaStateLandsCommission #AbandonedAndDerelictVessels #EnvironmentalCleanup

A botanist never leaves their work at the office, at least according to Amanda Segura-Moon! As a botanist and consulting biologist, Amanda spends a lot of time out in the field looking for rare plants and mapping natural habitats, managing invasive plant spread, conducting biological and botanical resource surveys and performing aquatic delineation analyses. And at home, she unwinds by taking care of her collection of potted plants, tending to her bioactive terrariums full of isopods, and experimenting with growing native plants in her container garden, as well as fostering kittens! “I love caring for pets, plants, and other living things in and around my house!” she shared.   Find out more about Amanda’s passion for all things plants in her professional and personal life, in our employee-owner spotlight series. https://lnkd.in/g-EhxRaM #EmployeeOwnerSpotlight #EmployeeOwner #Botanist #Biologist #LifeOfABiologist

We are totally amped! ⚡🔌 The 125-mile Ten West Link transmission project is now charged up and operational, bringing more than 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy throughout California and the Desert Southwest. ESA’s Cultural Resources Team is honored to have supported Lotus Infrastructure Partners during the development of the project by providing archaeological monitoring during the peak construction efforts. To keep the project’s schedule on track, ESA averaged 20 personnel daily in the field, and routinely adjusted on short notice to match changing construction demands. Notably, the corridor spans numerous jurisdictions with varied cultural resource requirements involving Arizona and California Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Arizona and California State Historic Preservation Officers, Bureau of Reclamation, California Public Utilities Commission, Arizona State Lands, LA PAZ COUNTY, Arizona and California tribes, and private landowners. “Our Southern California cultural resources team is incredibly proud that we were able to help execute on a shared vision for clean, safe energy to communities throughout California and the Desert Southwest,” says Cultural Resources Practice Leader Tony Overly, RPA. Read more about the project at: https://lnkd.in/gpJtqZsM and Ten West Link Electrical Transmission Line Archaeological Monitoring — Environmental Science Associates (esassoc.com) #TenWestLink #Solar #PowerTransmission #RenewableEnergy #Archaeology #CulturalResourcesMonitoring

“There’s been a lot of work in the Bay Area over the past few years to find ways to implement more nature-based infrastructure and build more connections between communities and Bay ecosystems,” shared Eddie Divita in a recent interview with the KneeDeep Times Magazine. Through a collaborative effort, ESA, Mithun, The Watershed Project, and the North Richmond Community developed the North Richmond Collaborative Shoreline Adaptation Plan for the West County Wastewater District. The planning document presents a community-driven vision for nature-based sea-level rise adaptation and other community benefits along five miles of shore in North Richmond and neighboring areas of unincorporated Contra Costa County. This segment of the bay shoreline includes several communities that have suffered from historic racial, economic, and environmental inequities, and that are vulnerable to increased future flood risk due to rising sea levels. ESA’s team, including Edward Divita, Linnea Tucker, Mark Lindley, Christie Beeman, and Katherine Dudney, provided technical expertise for biology, ecology, coastal engineering, and adaptation measures to inform the collaborative planning process.  ESA also is the civil and environmental engineering lead for developing a 30% design for a 0.75-mile long segment of living levee along the western boundary of the West County Wastewater Treatment Plant. This “Phase 1” living levee project could be the first of several projects sequenced over the coming years to implement the vision presented in the Collaborative Shoreline Adaptation Plan. Read more about the collaborative planning and design process in a Knee Deep Times article: https://lnkd.in/gfE2jvdq and https://lnkd.in/gekSuxUD #CommunityEngagement #NatureBasedSolution #CollaborativePlanning #ClimateAdaptation #SeaLevelRise #ShorelineAdaptation #PublicOutreach #NorthRichmond

We’re midway through June and California’s fire season is already underway as hot temperatures and high winds are fueling a series of wildfires across the state which have burned more than 200,000 acres so far. Wildfire threats have now become an ever-present reality in California and throughout much of the Western US because of factors like rising temperatures, overstocked and overcrowded forests, and increased development. As we prepare for a hotter, drier future, cities, counties, agencies, and residents will need to prepare for and manage the risk of these wildfire impacts. “As climate change continues to cause higher global and regional temperatures, it is crucial that our clients have data to inform their decision-making process,” says Principal Biologist and Urban Forester Ryan Gilmore. Applying science-based approaches and strategies can help communities manage these risks, by examining forest health and the scale of wildfire impacts, understanding hazards, and creating plans for wildfire prevention and preparedness. ESA is working with clients to develop forest resilience planning, Community Wildfire Protection Plans, and assessing the environmental damages associated from wildfires. Understand how we are implementing these science-based approaches towards wildfire protection planning and support at: https://lnkd.in/gAjv9fYb #Wildfires #WildfireManagement #ForestResiliency #WildfireProtection #WildfirePrevention #CommunityWildfireProtectionPlans

🥂 Cheers to the newest members of the Board! Please join us in congratulating Ruta K. Thomas, Keith Steele, and Amy Weeden who join ESA’s Board of Directors. Joining ESA’s six other internal and external Directors, these individuals set the strategic vision for the firm, oversee performance, and look towards the future to ensure long-term growth and sustainability. Learn more about these leaders at the following link: https://lnkd.in/g98uvtDc We’re excited for what the year ahead will bring! #BoardOfDirectors #EmployeeOwner #Leadership