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SWCA is your Partner for Ecosystem Solutions

SWCA has served as a valued environmental resources partner to private and public clients in a range of geographies for more than 40 years. Our dedicated ecological restoration and engineering team designs, permits, and builds environmental restoration projects. We have the expertise and the relationships necessary to seamlessly guide clients’ projects from inception to completion. With a strong record of project delivery, our team will help you achieve your project goals through sound science, creative solutions, and technical excellence.

Ecosystems, with their intricate web of interactions, have the inherent ability to buffer against the shocks of a changing climate. They provide a natural solution for the protection of wildlife, and against flooding, coastal degradation, and other disasters. When aligned with climate adaptation policies, ecological restoration can enhance the natural resiliency of communities. Our experts provide support for federal, state, and municipal agencies, private companies, and non-profits in conceptualizing and completing resilience projects, including nature-based solutions, no matter the size.

 

Associations

• Society for Ecological Restoration (SER)

• Ecological Restoration Business Association (ERBA)

• Society of Wetland Scientists

6100+ Restoration Projects

373 Employees with Restoration Experience

50 # of States Where SWCA has Performed Restoration Work

WHY CHOOSE SWCA?

Full-Service Solutions

Our clients benefit from a seamless integration of diverse services that simplifies decision-making, reduces the complexities of managing multiple partners, and fosters a holistic approach to finding solutions. By offering a comprehensive range of ecosystem services, SWCA provides clients with streamlined timelines and reduced project costs. From initial site survey through final construction oversight, SWCA applies innovative techniques for assessing, designing, and completing stream, river, and wetland projects. 

COMMUNITY DRIVEN

We have experience working with local, regional, state, federal, tribal, and non-government organizations, SWCA leads an inclusive planning process from inception to completion. We engage with community leaders to learn about their values, concerns, and sense of place to create ecological restoration plans that meet their needs. We also use a variety of engagement strategies to reach the public and gain their input for ecological restoration plans.

SCIENTIFICALLY SOUND

SWCA is an established leader in ecological restoration. Our experience includes providing coastal resiliency services with living shorelines, wetland and stream mitigation solutions for regulatory driven impacts, guiding habitat management plans to protect threatened species, and beyond. We anchor our solutions in sound science that enables project partners to make informed decisions on critical matters.

TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED

We capture and merge relevant project data in near real time with a variety of technologies operating from land, sea, air, and space. Every project is different, and our data acquisition planners develop solutions tailored to your requirements. Our dedicated technologies team supports ecological restoration projects with advanced modeling and analysis, drones, satellite imagery, AI and machine learning, interactive online content (e.g., story maps, central websites), custom field data collection systems, and digital and online public meeting spaces.

Relevant Services

Funding

  • Funding Source Identification
  • Grant proposal preparation
  • Technical project support
  • Grant application assistance
  • Grant eligibility assessment

Planning 

Permitting

  • National Environmental Policy Act
  • Federal and state permitting
  • Resource assessments and agency consultations
  • Ecological restoration permit streamlining
    and statutory/categorical exemptions
  • Compensatory mitigation plans and designs

Design

  • Fluvial geomorphic assessments
  • Natural Channel Design (NCD)
  • Sediment supply and transport modeling
  • Hydrologic and hydraulic modeling
  • Fish passage design
  • River migration studies

Construction

  • Native seeding
  • Wetland planting
  • Biological Monitoring
  • Tree and shrub planting
  • Sediment and erosion control measures
  • Construction oversight
  • Environmental inspections

Maintenance

  • Invasive species control
  • Biological control of species
  • Herbicide application
  • Permit compliance
  • Integrated Pest Management (IPM) planning
  • Natural area stewardship

Monitoring

  • Remote instream monitoring
  • Surface and groundwater monitoring
  • Statistical sampling design
  • Vegetation monitoring
  • Field surveys

ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION LIFECYCLE

Step One

Funding

With a long history of working with partners that have been awarded or are exploring funding through grants, our team has a unique understanding of the compliance challenges grantees face. SWCA guides grantees through the regulatory process, regardless of project type or organizational experience with federal funding and regulations.

Step Two

Planning

SWCA can help you understand your project site’s constraints and potential. This information allows our clients to seize opportunities and avoid costly permitting or engineering problems while site planning. Decision analysis and workshop facilitation help guide collaborative efforts for funding, planning, building, and operating complex projects across multiple jurisdictions.

Step Three

Permitting

SWCA has negotiated and obtained tens of thousands of environmental and cultural resource permits, approvals, and entitlements and helps clients meet federal, state, and local regulations. By combining ecological and cultural expertise, our team provides time and expense efficiencies to keep projects moving, while reducing costs and maintaining compliance.

Step Four

Design

SWCA’s engineers and designers have planned all types of restoration projects, including dam removal, floodplain restoration/reconnection, meadow restoration, channel design, daylighting, culvert replacement/retrofits, streambank stabilization, and bioengineering. Our team has developed a design process through more than 80 years’ collective experience with fluvial geomorphic assessments and river restoration design projects.

Step Five

Construction

SWCA offers many services to support construction of your restoration project. Our experienced team can assist with all aspects of project management — from site preparation and plant installation to construction oversight and post-construction monitoring and maintenance. Our team understands the complexity of construction projects, building every project to last.

Step Six

Maintenance

SWCA develops management plans and removes/controls plants in upland, wetland, and aquatic sites. Some plant management techniques that SWCA uses include foliar low-pressure and cut-stump herbicide applications, stem injection, wiping/wicking, and biological controls. Our specialists work primarily in sensitive resource areas. They have experience identifying native-desirable species and non-native-invasive species, while limiting disturbance of non-target species.

Step Seven

Monitoring

Monitoring ecological restoration projects creates a record of natural systems’ development and guides adaptive management. Through monitoring techniques like field inspections, satellite imagery, and remote sensing, SWCA tracks changes in vegetation cover and species distribution. Monitoring ensures early detection of invasive species cover, sediment transport, species distribution, and other disturbances.

Project Spotlights

Meet The Experts

Service Line Director

Tony St. Aubin

Tony has over 20 years of experience working in the construction, design/ build, energy, renewables, water resources, mitigation/conservation banking, and reclamation industries.

Tony.St.Aubin [at] swca.com (Contact Tony  →)
Southeast

Josh Allen, PE

Josh has over 16 years’ experience working on site stabilization and ecosystem restoration projects. His experience includes conducting site investigations, hydrologic and hydraulic analysis and modeling of watersheds, streams, and stormwater wetlands.

 

josh.allen [at] swca.com (Contact Josh  →)
Gulf Coast

Will Norman

Will has 19 years of experience in the planning, development, and management of multi-disciplinary water resource programs with extensive experience in state and federal environmental regulations and policies.

will.norman [at] swca.com (Contact Will  →)
Rocky Mountain Plains

Chloe Lewis

Chloe is a Water Resource Scientist and has 9 years of experience providing technical support and project management on a variety of projects. She specializes in watershed assessments, climate resilience planning, aquatic resources, wetland ecology, and river restoration.

chloe.lewis [at] swca.com (Contact Chloe  →)
Senior Office Director

Matt Daniels, PE

Matt has over 30 years of experience as a civil engineer, he’s participated in the assessment, design, permitting, implementation and monitoring of numerous restoration and fish passage projects throughout the Western US.

Matt.Daniels [at] swca.com (Contact Matt  →)
Principal Water Resources Team Lead

John Muhlfeld

John has managed stream, river, wetland, and floodplain restoration projects in western Montana, Idaho, and Oregon. He is involved in all phases from field assessment to design, permitting, and construction management.

John.Muhlfeld [at] swca.com (Contact John  →)
Principal Natural Resources Team Lead

Troy Brandt, FP-C

Troy has over 25 years of experience in aquatic habitat enhancement, fish passage, and regulatory compliance in Oregon, Montana, and Idaho. He collaborates with clients to improve stream habitat and watershed connectivity for fish species.

Troy.Brandt [at] swca.com (Contact Troy  →)