What Prairie Sky Ecology does.

Land trusts & landowners

Conservation easement services

For land trusts, conservancies, landowners, and the attorneys and appraisers who work with them.

A conservation easement protects a property's conservation values in perpetuity. Documenting those values well at the start, and checking on them every year, is what keeps the easement defensible.

Baseline documentation reports

A baseline documentation report records the condition of a property at the time the easement is placed: its natural communities, wildlife habitat, water resources, agricultural and scenic values, existing improvements, and any threats. It is the reference the easement is held to and the record the IRS requires for a donated easement. We prepare baseline reports with field surveys, photo points, maps and clear narrative.

Annual monitoring support

Site visits, photo-point repeats and monitoring reports that compare a property's current condition to its baseline and to the terms of the easement, so stewardship staff have a clean record year over year.

Conservation values and habitat assessments

• Identification of significant natural vegetation communities
• Wildlife habitat and special-status species documentation
• Riparian corridor health assessment
• Noxious weed identification and mapping
• GIS mapping and spatial analysis

Field work

Wildlife biology & field surveys

For agencies, engineering and environmental firms, energy and infrastructure clients.

• Threatened and endangered species surveys, including Preble's meadow jumping mouse trapping along the Front Range
• Habitat assessment and field reconnaissance
• Migratory bird and nesting surveys under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
• Burrowing owl, raptor and ground-nesting bird surveys
• Single-species monitoring
• Wildlife movement and crossing studies, with placement and design recommendations
• Buffer zone identification

CDOT Section 240 migratory bird compliance

Qualified wildlife biologist support for CDOT Section 240: pre-construction nest surveys, construction monitoring, nest protection and the documentation CDOT requires.

Documents & permitting

NEPA support & permitting

For federal, state and local agencies and the consultants and project sponsors who work with them.

• Environmental Assessments (EAs), Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) and Categorical Exclusions
• Biological Assessments and Biological Evaluations
• Baseline wildlife assessment studies and Biological Resources Technical Reports
• Wildlife and threatened and endangered species sections: existing conditions, impact analysis, mitigation
• Federal, state and local permit applications and reviews

Project management

Lead authorship and assembly of NEPA documents; coordinating regulatory timelines across districts, landowners and agencies; budgets, schedules and deliverables; and making sure the science collected in the field supports the mitigation written into the final decision.

Planning

Environmental compliance & planning

For agencies, counties, municipalities and private landowners.

• Multi-agency regulatory compliance
• Habitat Conservation Plans
• Ecological and resource management plans
• Wildlife use and movement corridor studies
• Agency coordination: BLM, USFWS, NPS, USACE, CDOT, CPW, SHPO, counties and municipalities, Denver Water, Colorado Natural Heritage Program, energy companies