SWCA Acquires Leading Restoration Firm River Design Group

Acquisition Expands SWCA’s Presence in the Northwest, Strengthens its Water Resources Engineering Expertise

SWCA Environmental Consultants, a leader in environmental and management consulting services, has acquired River Design Group (RDG), a leading ecosystem and river restoration consulting firm based in the northwestern United States.

Founded in 2003, River Design Group helps clients design and implement high-quality ecological restoration projects to restore rivers and watersheds, create vital fish passage corridors, and enhance ecosystems through major dam removal and habitat restoration projects.

River Design Group is well-respected in the industry for combining science-based knowledge with proven engineering techniques to advance the field of ecosystem and river restoration. The team brings deep technical expertise in stream, river, and wetland restoration, dam removal, fish passage, watershed and geomorphic assessments, remote sensing, and land surveying.

“We are pleased to welcome River Design Group to SWCA,” said Joseph J. Fluder, III, SWCA’s president and chief executive officer. “The addition of River Design Group greatly enhances our expertise and capabilities in strategic growth areas, allowing us to better serve our clients. Bringing on their exceptional team is a pivotal step toward our North Star to be a global leader addressing sustainability, environmental and social challenges.”

“This is an opportunity to grow River Design Group’s legacy of providing high-quality, specialized river restoration services to our clients. The supporting infrastructure and expertise of the established SWCA team will allow us to continue to focus on what we do best — designing and building projects that benefit the ecosystem,” said Matt Daniels, owner at River Design Group.

“Our people love what they do and are connected to the places we work. By joining SWCA, we’ll be able to expand what we can offer our clients while creating greater opportunities for our people and giving back to our local communities,” said Scott Wright, owner at River Design Group.

River Design Group’s Project Experience

With a focus on ecological restoration and reconnecting stream corridors to benefit fish and wildlife communities, RDG’s portfolio includes monumental dam removal and river restoration projects in the Intermountain West and Pacific Northwest region. RDG collaborates with clients and project stakeholders on the design, planning, project management and implementation, permitting, and compliance for restoration-based projects. Notable projects include:

For more than a decade, RDG has been working in the Rogue River Basin in Oregon designing and implementing several dam removal projects to assist in recovery of the Southern Oregon Northern California Coast (SONCC) Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), which is listed as a protected species on the Endangered Species Act. RDG provided engineering design and construction administration to remove two mainstem dams and eight tributary dams opening over 100 miles of volitional fish passage that allow access to vital spawning and rearing habitat. In addition to removing fish passage barriers, RDG also delivered over 100 large wood structures and several miles of side channel restoration.

Dam Removal Project, Rogue River Basin, Oregon

RDG is supporting the Kootenai Tribe with an ecosystem-based restoration effort spanning 55 miles of the Kootenai River in northern Idaho. The team first completed a master plan to outline the framework for undertaking large-scale habitat restoration and a holistic approach to address the decline of the Kootenai River white sturgeon (acipenser transmontanus) caused by dam operations and historical land use. RDG has performed planning, design, hydraulic modeling, bid document preparation, construction oversight, and monitoring for 14 projects. Restoration activities include side channel enhancement, island/floodplain creation, tributary restoration, bank restoration, levee breaches and pool creation.

Kootenai River, Northern Idaho

RDG is assisting a stakeholder group, which includes the Lake County Umbrella Watershed Council, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, two water user groups, and local landowners, with a fish passage planning effort in the Warner Basin, Oregon. The project is intended to improve watershed connectivity for the Warner Sucker (Catostomus warnerensis), a federally threatened fish species endemic to the Warner Basin in central Oregon. RDG has completed five fish passage projects that have included technical and nature-like fishways, culvert replacements, and irrigation canal fish screens.

Fish passage in Warner Basin, Oregon

Since 2004, RDG has been working with private landowners, industry, and federal and state agencies to restore one of Montana’s most unique and important wetland resources located in the greater Madison River valley near Ennis, Montana. The team has completed 19 phases of restoration in the O’Dell Spring Creek headwaters, including 11 miles of spring creek reconstruction, 580 acres of emergent wetland enhancement, and 35 acres of open water wetland development. Since inception of this project, landowners and resource agencies have received multiple state and national awards in recognition of their efforts to restore these important wildlife habitats while successfully integrating and balancing agricultural land-use practices.

O’Dell Spring Creek headwaters in Ennis, Montana