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The USDA Forest Service, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, has awarded GeomorphIS with a task order to prepare the engineering design plans and specifications, and associated permits for the Taylor-Tallac Wetland Restoration Project, in South Lake Tahoe, California. GeomorphIS team includes Geosyntec Consultants, Northwest Hydraulic Consultants, and Pyramid Botanical Consultants. Permitting tasks include an aquatic delineation and other surveys/studies needed for restoration project compliance in Lake Tahoe. A set of conceptual restoration actions have been analyzed in a joint environmental review document (NEPA, CEQA and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Environmental Checklist) (see attached). The purpose of the Taylor and Tallac Restoration project is to restore ecological processes and functions in the Taylor and Tallac Creeks and marsh area while also maintaining or enhancing existing recreational facilities and infrastructure. The purpose of these professional services is to take a more critical look at the complex relationship between the wetland and the Lake and describe the results in a technical memo, work with the Forest Service regarding the restoration action constraints, and then work together to develop 100% design plans and specifications to implement this work. The project is in El Dorado County and is accessible from State Highway 89 northwest of the City of South Lake Tahoe.

The National Park Service has tasked GeomorphIS and team member Wildland Fire Associates to prepare a Fire Management Plan (FMP) and Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Oregon Caves National Monument, in southwestern Oregon. The NPS is required to have FMPs for all units with burnable vegetation as defined by Reference Manual 18: Wildland Fire Management — National Park Service (NPS). Recent revisions to Department of the Interior and NPS fire management policy have resulted in changes to the requirements associated with FMPs, including new formats and templates.  This, combined with rapid landscape-level changes resulting from longer and more severe fire seasons and warmer and drier climatic conditions throughout parks of the Pacific West Region (PWR), has created the need for FMP updates, including the one at Oregon Caves National Monument. The GeomorphIS team will update the lapsed park FMP and prepare the NEPA documents needed to implement the FMP.

The Bureau of Land Management, Price Field Office has contracted the GeomorphIS/BIOME team to conduct Mexican Spotted Owl (MSO) surveys within the San Rafael Swell, Transportation Management Plan (TMP) area, in southeastern Utah. The GeomorphIS team will 1) conduct complete USFWS protocol level surveys (i.e., four complete surveys annually for two years) within 35,000 acres of contractor identified suitable habitat, and 2) prepare and submit to the PFO a detailed report, along with all survey data, summarizing the results and analyzing potential issues. Additionally, during the course of field season, the GeomorphIS will record and report on any incidental observations of other raptors, raptor nests, or BLM special status species (e.g., other Strigiformes, golden eagles, ferruginous hawks) as well as the ESA listed Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus), and Yellow-billed Cuckoos (Coccyzus americanus).