Ecological Consulting Services
Prairie Sky Ecology provides ecological consulting for agencies, non-profits, consultants, private companies, and landowners — with the personal attention and cost-saving value of a small business. Reach out anytime; we'd love to hear about your project and find the right way to support it.
Who we are
Prairie Sky Ecology is a Denver-area ecological consulting firm serving Colorado, with extensive experience along the Front Range and throughout the state. The firm is founded and led by wildlife biologist Kim Cornelisse, who brings a decade of experience in wildlife biology, NEPA analysis (EAs and EISs), and project management.
Kim pairs rigorous field science with a deep understanding of federal regulatory frameworks. Working as both a wildlife biologist and NEPA planner on multi-agency filings, she specializes in bridging complex ecological field data with regulatory requirements — ensuring the science collected in the field directly supports the mitigation built into final decision documents.
Her background spans NEPA, wildlife reconnaissance, GIS mapping and spatial analysis, and archaeology. She has worked for small consulting firms and large environmental engineering companies alike, including Tetra Tech and URS Corp (now AECOM). She coordinates fluently with federal (BLM, USFWS, NPS), state (CDOT, CPW), and county agencies, in addition to transportation projects for RTD and water-storage EISs for Denver Water and the Rueter-Hess Reservoir project.
Kim conducts professional consultations on special-status terrestrial and aquatic species whose habitats would be altered by proposed projects. She has conducted ecological assessments identifying migratory birds and threatened & endangered species, developed recommendations for wildlife crossings that reduce impacts to migratory wildlife, and authored EAs and EISs for large transportation, water-storage, energy, and contamination projects.
Innovation
A modern, innovative approach to ecological services
Beyond traditional field and regulatory work, Kim is focused on bringing emerging technology into ecological consulting. She applies AI and machine-learning tools to accelerate species detection from field imagery and audio, classify habitat and vegetation from remote-sensing data, model wildlife movement and crossing needs, and streamline the drafting and review of NEPA documents. The goal is always the same: sharper field data and clearer, better-supported decisions — with technology augmenting expert judgment, not replacing it.
Who we serve
Colorado's transportation, water, energy & infrastructure projects.
Federal, state, and local agencies — BLM, USFWS, NPS, CDOT, CPW, and Colorado counties and municipalities — alongside private clients from concept through completion.
Services
Qualifications snapshot
- Field trapping surveys and wildlife-crossing recommendations
- Bird surveys: migratory birds, nest surveys, burrowing owl, bird banding
- T&E species: Preble's meadow jumping mouse, black-footed ferrets
- NEPA biologist on multiple high-profile EIS/EA projects
- CDOT: biologist on several EIS/EA and biological assessments, including wildlife-crossing placement
- MBTA: recommendations and mitigation for nesting birds
- GIS mapping and spatial analysis
- Agency coordination: BLM, NPS, CPW, USFWS, CDOT, counties & municipalities, Denver Water, CSU Natural Heritage Program, energy companies
CDOT Section 240 migratory bird compliance. Prairie Sky Ecology provides qualified wildlife biologist support for CDOT Section 240 migratory bird compliance — including pre-construction nest surveys, raptor and ground-nesting bird surveys, construction monitoring, and nest protection and documentation.
Wildlife Biology & Field Surveys
- Single-species monitoring
- Threatened & endangered species surveys — including Preble's meadow jumping mouse trapping along the Front Range
- Habitat assessment and field reconnaissance
- Burrowing owl surveys
- Avian / nesting surveys (Migratory Bird Treaty Act)
- CDOT Section 240 Migratory Bird & Nesting Bird Compliance
- Noxious weed identification and surveys
- Riparian corridor health assessment
NEPA Support
- Environmental Assessments (EA) and Environmental Impact Statements (EIS)
- Biological Assessments and Biological Evaluations
- Baseline wildlife assessment studies
- Biological Resources Technical Reports
Project Management
- Coordinating regulatory timelines across districts, landowners, and agencies
- Lead authorship and assembly of NEPA documents
- Ensuring field science directly supports final mitigation
Environmental Compliance & Planning
- Multi-agency regulatory compliance
- Habitat Conservation Plans
- Ecological and Resource Management Plans
- Conservation easement assessments on private lands
- Identification of significant natural vegetation communities
- Wildlife use / movement corridor studies
- Buffer zone identification
Conservation Easement Baseline Studies & Reports
A Conservation Easement Baseline Report describes the condition of a property at the time the easement is placed, and identifies the property's important resources and any threats to those resources. We specialize in conducting the baseline ecological assessments required by the IRS to document your land's conservation values.
Sectors Served
- Transportation — highways, corridors, transit, including road ecology and wildlife crossings
- Water — reservoirs, pipelines, treatment facilities
- Energy — oil, gas, and experimental extraction
- Private landowners and land trusts, for conservation easements
Projects
Transportation
US Highway 160 EIS — Durango to Bayfield CDOT · 2006
Primary URS wildlife biologist. Co-authored the Biological Assessment and Biological Evaluation for CDOT Region 5, consulting on impact mitigation for BLM sensitive species and recommending locations and types of wildlife crossings. Roadkill and winter-migration data she compiled helped catalyze the now-well-known wildlife underpasses and high-tensile fencing along US 160.
US Highway 550 Corridor Improvements EA CDOT · 2005
Primary wildlife biologist and point of contact. Prepared biological evaluations from the New Mexico state line north to County Road 220 and recommended wildlife-crossing placement and type.
US 36 Corridor / FasTracks Final EIS RTD · 2004–2009
Contributed foundational multi-agency data development and authored the Wildlife and Threatened & Endangered Species sections of the EIS and the Biological Resources Technical Report for the US 36 multimodal transit improvements (RTD, CDOT, and federal partners).
120th Avenue Extension Environmental Assessment Adams County · 2003–2005
Conducted species assessments, led prairie dog relocation, and contributed to the Environmental Assessment for Adams County, CDOT, and FHWA.
National Park Service (NPS)
Pacific Fisher Reintroduction EA Olympic NP · 2007
Provided predictive modeling and biological baseline data supporting reintroduction of the extirpated Pacific fisher to its native Olympic Peninsula habitat.
Mountain Lakes Fishery Management Plan EIS North Cascades NP · 2007
Staff wildlife biologist and preparer of Wildlife and Special-Status Species technical compliance, focusing on how historical fish-stocking and proposed management actions would impact alpine amphibians, raptors, and subalpine mammal communities.
Water
Southern Delivery System (SDS) Draft EIS 2007–2008
Conducted field data collection on wildlife and sensitive habitats along planned pipeline routes; evaluated how the conveyance pipeline and pump stations would impact wildlife; completed nest surveys for clearances and high-risk buffer zones within the Fountain Valley corridor.
Rueter-Hess Reservoir Final Supplemental EIS 2007
Biological resource lead. Evaluated how the reservoir's expanded high-water line would alter local habitats, including big-game winter range and protected migratory birds south of metro Denver. Her data were later cross-referenced in the Moffat Collection System EIS cumulative-impacts analysis.
Moffat Collection System Project EIS Denver Water · 2009
Participated in regulatory environmental reviews and inter-agency coordination (Denver Water, URS, and USFWS) for the Gross Reservoir expansion and related collection-system alternatives.
Fountain Sanitation District WWTF Expansion EA 2008
Project Manager and lead author. Coordinated the regulatory timeline among the district, landowners, and reviewing agencies; assessed effluent impacts on Fountain Creek water quality and aquatic life; evaluated impacts to the federally threatened Preble's meadow jumping mouse; and drafted wetland mitigation protocols for the expanded treatment ponds.
Energy & Mining
Shell Frontier Oil & Gas RD&D Pilot Projects EA BLM · 2006
Provided biological field data to the BLM White River Field Office on constraints for Shell's experimental in-situ oil-shale extraction tracts in Rio Blanco County, assessing species presence and development impacts.
Chevron / Molycorp Questa Mine Baseline Ecological Risk Assessment (BERA) — New Mexico 2004
Conducted field trapping for initial sampling of terrestrial wildlife (biota mapping) to measure toxic bioaccumulation as part of the Questa Mine baseline ecological risk assessment (BERA).
Volunteer Work
- Black-footed ferret surveys — CPW
- Prairie dog trapping & relocation
- Fish electroshocking — Colorado Parks and Wildlife
- Bird banding — Bird Conservancy of the Rockies
- Mammalogy lab, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
- Roots & Shoots — Green Mountain Homeschoolers
Project involvement is documented in public environmental records, environmental impact statements, and biological assessments.
Contact