PEOPLE

Bobby Tuttle, Senior Project Manager joined EPG in June 2010. Mr. Tuttle is a senior biologist and NEPA specialist with extensive experience managing and preparing complex, interdisciplinary NEPA documents and technical studies. His experience includes managing and preparing NEPA and supporting environmental compliance documents for federal projects in Utah, Colorado, Nevada, California, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

In addition to managing and preparing NEPA documents, Mr. Tuttle supervises and conducts formal presence/absence surveys and habitat assessments for federally listed sensitive, threatened, and endangered species. He also develops biological assessments and biological evaluations in support of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service consultations pursuant to Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. He conducts wetland delineations in support of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act permitting. He has supported Clean Water Act permitting for transportation and mining clients in Utah, Nevada, California, Wyoming, and Texas.

Prior to joining EPG, Mr. Tuttle served as Project Director for the Jones & Stokes Pacific Northwest and Mountain West Regions managing their Utah and Wyoming operations. He holds a master of science in biology (aquatic and terrestrial ecology; vertebrate physiology) and a bachelor of science in urban and regional planning from Texas State University.

Chris Gaughan – Wildlife Biologist joined EPG in April 2010 and has over 10 years of professional experience with wildlife species of conservation concern, wildlife and plant habitat identification and modeling, restoration ecology, wetland delineation, and mapping using Geographic Information Systems. Mr. Gaughan has authored and contributed to numerous environmental documents including peer reviewed publications, EIS, biological assessments, reclamation plans, wetland findings reports, technical appendices, and species specific and regional reports to federal, state, and local agencies. Much of his experience has been with linear alignments such as transmission lines, pipelines, and roads occurring within habitat for threatened, endangered, or wildlife species of concern. He has served as a project manager, technical expert, resource specialist, field biologist, mapping specialist, and a QA/QC reviewer on a number of projects involving non-profit organizations, corporations, and federal, state, and local governments. He received his master’s of science in wildlife conservation from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and his bachelor of science in earth science/geography from Montana State University in Bozeman.

Mike McConnell – Wildlife Biologist joined EPG in April 2010 and has over three years of experience in natural resource consulting. He has experience in environmental compliance with federal, state, and local regulations and has conducted several wetland delineations and 404 Clean Water Act permitting. He has prepared storm water pollution prevention plans and monitored plan compliance and performed compliance monitoring for the Endangered Species Act. He has worked with numerous federal and state agencies including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, BLM, Idaho State Fish and Game, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Mike has a bachelor of science degree in wildlife resources from the University of Idaho, College of Natural Resources.

Cheyenne

Nate Ferguson was recently appointed the Office Manager of the Cheyenne office. In addition to his office manager role, Mr. Ferguson is an environmental planner and project manager. Mr. Ferguson provides project coordination, recreation, visual resource, and land use inventory and analysis for Proponent’s Environmental Assessments (PEAs), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance including Environmental Assessments (EAs) and Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), municipal/county permitting projects, and constraint and opportunities/feasibility studies for linear facilities and site specific projects in California, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, and Utah.

Salt Lake City

Naia George, Archaeologist and Field Director for the Salt Lake City cultural resource group received her Register of Professional Archaeologists (RPA) certificate in April 2010. Naia joined EPG in 2009.

Phoenix

Curt Davidson has become a Registered Landscape Architect in the state of Arizona. Curt completed the national Landscape Architecture Registration Examination in June 2009 and was approved for registration by the state board in January 2010. Curt joined EPG in July 2009.

Tucson

Bob Pape was recently awarded a contract with Freeport McMoRan, Inc., to conduct a year-long arthropod study on property owned by Freeport in Bisbee, AZ.

Kristin Terpening was recently awarded a contract with SolarReserve to conduct scaly sandplant surveys and waters of the U.S. delineations on SolarReserve’s proposed solar site north of Quartzsite, AZ.

Linwood Smith was recently awarded a contract with Burns & McDonnell in San Diego to review recent research on the federally listed Peninsular Bighorn Sheep, provide a rationale to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for an amendment to the Biological Opinion on the Sunrise Powerlink Project, and to develop a study design for a long-term study of Peninsular Bighorn Sheep and the impacts of construction and operation of the Sunrise Powerlink Project.

We are pleased to announce that Joel Schneider, AICP of our Salt Lake City office has been selected as a member of the 2010 American Planning Association (APA) Awards Jury. Each year, APA recognizes outstanding efforts in planning and planning leadership. Joel was selected as one of eight national jurors that will review the award entries and identify the ones worthy of receiving national honor and recognition. These awards will be presented in New Orleans in the spring of 2010. Joel joined the Salt Lake City EPG office in June 2009 as an Environmental Planner and has been working as the Project Coordinator on the Mona to Oquirrh Transmission Corridor Project.