BRC-Equals3

Environmental, Regulatory, Permitting and Consulting Expertise

The services BRC-Equals3 provides vary greatly, depending upon the type of development or facility being planned, proposed, evaluated, or built.  BRC staff has produced ecological assessments, mitigation plans, construction monitoring plans, biological resources management plans, long-range resource management plans, research reports, restoration plans, and scientific journal articles and books.  Our managers, scientists and associates offer a broad range of services including: 

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• Basic biological research  

• Construction/compliance monitoring 

• Baseline resource inventories

• Ecological modeling

• Impact assessments

• Restoration Plans and implementation

• Mitigation planning and implementation

• Fatal flaw analyses

• Alternative route analyses for linear facilities

• Environmental permitting

• Environmental regulatory advice and assistance

• Wildlife telemetry investigations

• GIS/GPS applications

• Expert testimony

• Literature searches and database creation

• Resource management planning

• Air pollution permitting, evaluation and air toxics modeling

BRC-Equals3 personnel are experienced with the permit application and compliance requirements:

• NEPA and CEQA, and related impact statements and reports

• California Energy Commission Regulations

• California Public Utility Commission regulations and filings

• FERC Exhibit E’s

• Federal Clean Water Act

• California Endangered Species Act

• Federal Endangered Species Act Regulations specific to most of California's counties

• Federal and California Clean Air Act and local air pollution control regulatory programs

BRC-Equals3’s personnel have worked on environmental compliance issues for numerous facility types:

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• Wastewater Recycling Facilities

• Water pipelines

• Oil and natural gas facilities

• Conveyance aqueducts

• Coal and gas-fired power plants

• Hydroelectric facilities

• Cogeneration facilities

• Geothermal power facilities

• Military installations

• Roads and highways

• Reservoirs and canals

• Housing and urban development

• Public facilities

• Transmission and distribution powerlines

• Water supply systems

• Renewable energy facilities (e.g., wind farm and solar energy installations)

Wildlife and Botanical Consulting Expertise

BRC-Equals3 biologists currently are or have been members of recovery teams for endangered species.  They have developed standards and guidelines used for endangered species permitting and management and are respected by their peers as leaders in education and conservation programs involving ecological processes, endangered species management, and related topics.  Our biologists excel in wildlife ecology and botanical research/consulting.  A representative list of services follows:

• Habitat assessments and mapping

• Wildlife-habitat relationship analyses

• Vertebrate and invertebrate zoology and ecology

• Listed and special-status species inventories

• Biological assessments

• State and federal Endangered Species Act consultation processes

• Resource planning and management

• Watershed planning

• Habitat restoration and mitigation

• Geographic information management (GIS/GPS).   

• Rare plant surveys

• General vegetation surveys

• Floristic analyses

• Revegetation and restoration plans

• Jurisdictional boundary delineation

• Wetland functional evaluations and mapping

• Wetland creation and/or enhancement

• Groundwater monitoring

Listed and Special-Status Species Permits

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BRC-Equals3 can provide timely professional expertise on every special-status species that could potentially occur within our service area.  Not only do BRC-Equals3’s associates possess a variety of federal endangered species research permits and Memoranda of Understanding for many of the listed or sensitive wildlife species found in California and neighboring states, but BRC also occasionally subcontracts for the services of recognized experts who possess any needed permits not held by our staff.  This approach allows for rapid response to our client’s needs when endangered species are involved while maintaining a high level of quality control in our studies. 

The BRC-Equals3 team possesses extensive federal, state, and regional expertise with endangered species permitting, habitat conservation planning and other multi-species planning approaches to resource conservation. 

BRC-Equals3 can implement field studies under a wide range of environmental conditions and settings and professionally report the results.  Our biologists are experienced with conducting major field studies from the Alaskan arctic to the tropics, and we use state-of-the-art GPS/GIS mapping graphics and desktop publishing equipment to consistently produce publication-quality reports, maps, scientific illustrations and layouts for documents or public presentations.