Aquatic & Terrestrial Resources

RBI provides a wide variety of services to help our clients resolve problems associated with California’s aquatic and terrestrial biological resources. Our fisheries biologists specialize in fishery resources assessments, aquatic ecosystem evaluations, rapid bioassessment, and the design and implementation of studies to characterize potential effects of our client’s projects on fish and benthic macroinvertebrate communities, instream and riparian habitats, water temperature, and water quality. RBI also provides aquatic habitat restoration services, including the development of restoration plans, project design, permitting, construction monitoring, and pre- and post-restoration monitoring to evaluate the success of a restoration project. Our terrestrial biologists provide clients with a full range of terrestrial biological resource services from project inception through completion, from baseline plant and animal surveys to technical study design and implementation, to project impact analyses and mitigation development and post-project monitoring and compliance. RBI has extensive experience in providing fisheries and aquatic as well as terrestrial resource assessments for CEQA compliance and Endangered Species Act Section 7 consultations. RBI often serves as the lead CEQA/NEPA compliance consultant for terrestrial and aquatic resource evaluation and regulatory compliance on complex and controversial projects, specifically for providing highly accurate and legally defensible analyses, thereby averting potential litigation.

RBI has an outstanding track record of using sound scientific information as the basis for supporting their environmental assessments, restoration plans, and other client products. Our key fisheries staff have authored numerous publications in peer-reviewed fisheries journals, and have extensive knowledge of special-status and anadromous fish species. RBI fisheries biologists have established close working relationships with biologists from the fisheries resource agencies, including the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Through these relationships, RBI's fisheries biologists have maintained a reputation amongst these agencies of having an in-depth understanding of the technical and regulatory issues associated with California's fisheries resources and providing outstanding work products, which enables us to successfully work with agency biologists to address complex fisheries issues on behalf of our clients.

RBI biologists provide ESA consultations with USACE, USFWS, CDFG, and NOAA Fisheries Service in addition to regulatory compliance expertise on a range of projects including Section 7 consultations, habitat conservation plans, special-status species mitigation monitoring plans, mitigation plans, and management plans. RBI staff collectively have over 50 years of experience and knowledge managing and preparing biological assessments, habitat conservation plans, resource management plans, and completion of CEQA/NEPA documents.

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Primary Areas of Expertise

• Aquatic Habitat Restoration Planning & Design
• CEQA/NEPA
• Physical Habitat Assessments
• Endangered Species Act Consultations
• Assessments of Water quality and Temperature Impacts on Fish and Aquatic Life
• Fish & Benthic Macroinvertebrate Surveys and Aquatic Habitat Assessment
• Evaluation of Fish Passage at Barriers and Screens
• Environmental Training and Compliance
• Biological Monitoring of Construction Sites