Nonprofit Partnership Success Story in Ecological Restoration
Josh Allen, PE, CFM
SWCA Environmental Consultants
Charlotte, North Carolina
Trevor George
American Conservation Experience (ACE)
Twin Falls, Idaho
SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) recently partnered with American Conservation Experience (ACE) to provide nationwide environmental services to the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in support of restoration of degraded streams, wetlands, floodplains, forestlands, and associated uplands through NRCS wetland easement programs. ACE is a nationally scaled, 501 (c)(3) nonprofit that provides a wide variety of stewardship support to federal agencies engaging in environmental conservation. As one of the largest environmental consulting companies solely focused on environmental resources, SWCA combines the scientific-technical expertise, management skills, depth of resources, broad-based experience, and quality output of a large firm with the responsiveness and customer service of a small, locally-based firm. This highly qualified partnership assisted the NRCS with ecological restoration plan design, procurement and installation of conservation practices, inspection and quality control of restoration installation, and monitoring of restoration projects. ACE and SWCA, funded through a national cooperative agreement, created a multidisciplinary, nationwide team of more than 200 natural resource experts (botanists, biologists, ecologists, geomorphologists, and wetland scientists), engineers, planners, and highly trained field staff and volunteers to meet NRCS’ needs. From 2018 to 2023, ACE and SWCA implemented more than 20 restoration and technical planning projects across the country.
About Josh Allen, PE, CFM
Josh Allen works for SWCA Environmental Consultants as a Principal Restoration Engineer. Based in SWCA's Charlotte, North Carolina office, he focuses on engineering and design support for ecosystem restoration projects across the country. HIs experience as a consulting civil/environmental engineer spans more than 16 years. Of note, he has served as project manager/lead design engineer for numerous fluvial geomorphological assessment and stream restoration, wetland restoration, stormwater quality, and flood control design projects spanning across North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Kansas, Vermont, Massachusetts, Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. These projects have been implemented in numerous physiographic settings across the country, including the mountain, piedmont, prairie, coastal and central plains, and estuarine provinces.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuacallen3/
About Trevor George
Trevor has always had a passion for outdoor environments. With a B.S. in Geology, he began his career in consulting, but soon focused on environmental conservation and land management. In California, Trevor worked for a nonprofit stewarding a diverse portfolio of open space preserves and conservation easements. He later moved to Idaho to work for the Idaho Department of Lands, where he managed thousands of acres of working lands and regulated mining activities and navigable waters. Trevor has worked at American Conservation Experience (ACE) for the past three years, forging new partnerships with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) throughout the country. Through a series of cooperative agreements with the NRCS, Trevor and his team implement a wide variety of restoration activities on private lands. Trevor serves on the board of a local land trust, and seeks to preserve and improve natural resources for his kids and the generations that follow.