Lakes, Rivers, Streams, and Watersheds

Planning

Whether its watershed modeling, aquatic plant management, public education, shoreline restoration, or grant writing, a strategic plan often guides all aquatic projects.

GEI’s experts integrate ecological principles into essential planning elements to provide a solid foundation for managing aquatic resources and implementing projects in the watershed and around lakes, rivers, and other aquatic ecosystems.

For many of our clients, planning often begins by securing grant funding. Our staff have a proven track record for successfully securing and managing grants on behalf of our clients from state, federal, and non-profit funding sources.

Planning also involves outreach to the public and enhancing our client’s knowledge of aquatic resources. Our team excels in leading stakeholder involvement and public participation processes, identifying and quantifying pollutant sources, studying and documenting the physical, chemical, and biological components of aquatic systems, and developing actionable recommendations to address threats and impairments. We have successfully planned projects for lake management, aquatic plant and invasive species management, watershed management, and fisheries management.

Our team supports the possibilities and alternatives for a variety of aquatic projects from the earliest stages of planning and feasibility through implementation, completion, and follow-up monitoring.
Specialties include:
• Aquatic plant management
• Funding
• Lake management planning
• Watershed 9 key element planning
• Watershed modeling

Restoration & Enhancement

Aquatic environments often require unique elements of design, including nature-based solutions. Our experts provide effective, resilient, and ecologically sound solutions to complex water resource problems to resolve short- and long-term challenges. These include stream and shoreline restoration, wetland restoration, fisheries and habitat enhancements, flora and fauna community assessments, aquatic invasive species control, and native plant re-establishment.

Our team can design, install, maintain, and manage all aspects of habitat restoration in a variety of freshwater, wetland, and riparian environments. A restored landscape can make a big difference to a project’s long-term success, especially when accounting for the impacts of weather and a changing climate.

Specialties include:
• Stream restoration
• Shoreline
• Fisheries & Habitat enhancements
• Native plant reestablishment

Protection

Protecting plant and wildlife resources has become more visible and it’s a critical part of the permitting and stakeholder process. Our experienced team lead projects across diverse aquatic terrains including lakes, streams, and wild and scenic or recreational rivers. We understand that each waterbody or watershed presents unique challenges for protected species and sensitive habitats.

Our work with rare, threatened, and endangered species spans projects of all sizes. We perform surveys, assessments, and relocations, supporting detailed habitat evaluation and designs that prioritize consideration of these species throughout the lifespan of a project.

Protecting and monitoring these diverse aspects of a site are top of mind for our ecologists and aquatic experts. Our team stays updated on the latest water quality criteria and recommendations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for projects around the U.S. to ensure our clients receive the best, most up-to-date advice.

Specialties include:
• Wild and scenic rivers
• Source water protection
• Rare, threatened, and endangered species
(surveys, assessments, relocations)
• Habitat evaluation and design

Monitoring & Evaluation

GEI’s ecologists bring extensive experience in monitoring and evaluating the chemical, physical, and biological aspects of aquatic environments. This allows us to identify impairments and potential challenges and to mitigate obstacles that could otherwise hinder long-term project success.

Our expertise includes hydrologic and water quality assessments, sediment transport and hydraulic modeling, aquatic plant surveys and mapping, bathymetric and sediment mapping, fisheries surveys, erosion inventories, shoreline habitat assessments, and more.

Our teams combined the results of modeling and biological monitoring or biomonitoring to compressively assess the health of aquatic systems and to monitor progress towards restoration targets.

While we work with native birds, fish, mammals, invertebrates, and plants, we also closely evaluate, assess, and design solutions to mitigate the effects of aquatic invasive species and harmful algae blooms. We also protect state and federally-listed animal and plant species of concern. Mitigating or even removing the threat from invasive species and algae blooms produces long-term communal benefits to the wider ecosystems.

Specialties include:
• Water quality
• Fisheries
• Aquatic invasive and native plant surveys and
mapping
• Invertebrates surveys
• Harmful algae blooms
• Shoreline habitat assessments

Management

Our teams thrive on managing plant and wildlife resources at all project stages. We are experienced in coordinating and overseeing contractors to consider options and alternatives and keep projects on track. Our robust experience in collaborating on local, state, and federal regulations with various agencies has resulted in positive relationships that allow us to help our clients expedite the permitting and regulatory compliance process. This creates a smoother, more efficient process for everyone involved.

Permitting, compliance, and other forms of regulatory support are essential to project success. We prioritize meeting the permitting needs of our clients on complicated and challenging aquatic projects throughout North America.

Navigating the permitting process and understanding the latest regulations are crucial for project success. With our expertise, we guide our clients through the permitting process including agency coordination.

Specialties include:
• Contractor oversight and coordination
• Permitting and agency coordination

Research

Research is a priority on each waterbody we work on. We pride ourselves on understanding the unique characteristics of the environment and knowing the stakeholders and how they value the system.

Our research informs us how to customize our approach and goals on a project to meet the community’s objectives, including environmental stewardship, educational components, and recreational opportunities.

At GEI, we stay on top of research from multiple regulatory agencies, including the EPA’s water quality criteria. Our teams conduct regular reviews of the EPA’s national toxicity databases to develop site-specific standards for metals and other parameters. GEI updates these databases with new data from research conducted since the EPA criteria documents were originally published. These updates have been used in statewide criteria to replace older EPA criteria for key metals such as aluminum, zinc, and cadmium.

Outreach & Engagement

Almost every project involving water has a component of public outreach. GEI’s ecologists are well versed in engaging and conducting outreach with stakeholders throughout their projects. Our team has years of experience facilitating public meetings and educational efforts on complex, nuanced projects that are highly visible and valuable to the public.

Community members, neighborhoods, outdoor recreationists, and others may be sensitive to proposed actions. We are ready to clearly communicate complicated technical information and data in an unbiased manner to help all stakeholders understand project benefits and timelines. This may be in small meetings, workshops, or at public forums, all designed to help guide stakeholders navigate a united journey forward.

The overall goal of this outreach and engagement is to help explain the steps involved in the project and what we are doing to improve the environments our stakeholders live in.