-Cascade recently assisted the Hopkins Demonstration Forest staff with overseeing volunteers who installed over 900 plants at the amphibian pond site. Emergent wetland, scrub-shrub, willow, and riparian upland plants were planted on a beautiful sunny Sunday.

We were excited to see that the site is already home to at least 14 red-legged frog egg masses, and several rough-skinned newts.

As part of the Clackamas Partnership Strategic Planning project, Cascade developed and submitted a restoration implementation grant proposal to the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB). OWEB selected the Partnership to receive a Focused Investment Partnership (FIP) implementation grant. The partnership was awarded $3,454,580 of a 6-year (2019-2025) planned total investment of $8,744,080 to support fish habitat restoration in the Clackamas River Basin and other watersheds, benefitting Chinook salmon, coho salmon, steelhead, and other native fish species. The Partnership estimates leveraging at least an equal amount of additional funding from Partnership organizations and other sources to support their efforts.

“This project is a great investment of the state’s Lottery dollars,” says Meta Loftsgaarden, OWEB’s
executive director. “This investment benefits native fish species while improving water quality and
supporting the local natural resource economy.”

Learn more about the project here.

The application window for this position is now closed. Thank you to everyone who applied!  Applicants who will be invited to interview have been contacted.
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Cascade Environmental Group seeks a mid-level Wetland Ecologist/GIS Analyst with 3-5 years of experience. We are a small, locally-owned consulting company that primarily develops wetland mitigation banks, publicly-funded restoration planning and design projects, and watershed assessments, as well as completing wetland delineations, compliance monitoring, and aquatic resource permitting. Our office is in the Pearl District of Downtown Portland. The employee in this position will spend approximately 70% of their time as an ecologist and approximately 30% as a GIS analyst.

Applicants should have demonstrated experience with mid-level professional work and the desire for continued professional development, both in knowledge and abilities. Applicants should be able to delineate wetlands, develop wetland permit applications, and perform compliance monitoring work with minimal supervision. 

See full job description and information on how to apply HERE.

Construction of the Hopkins Forest Wetland Restoration Project was completed in September of 2018. Two ponds and associated wetlands were graded, and habitat features such as logs, rock piles, and sand areas were installed to provide habitat for a variety of species, particularly amphibians. The site will be planted in late Fall of 2018. More

Cascade is thrilled to provide wetland delineation and functions assessment assistance to TransAlta Centralia Mining and DNV-GL for the proposed Tono Solar project in Washington State. TransAlta is our longest-running client and we are pleased to be a part of the project in this planning and engineering phase.  The project is proposed to be sited on reclamation lands for the mine and would be the largest solar project in the state. It is located near our work on the Big Hanaford Creek and Chehalis Basin Mitigation Bank.   
 
Local news write up and more information can be found here.

​John Runyon is participating in a panel at CONNECT Conservation Conference in Seaside on April 19, 2018. The panel will discuss how open-source web-based technology is fostering collaborative watershed restoration in the Clackamas River Basin and other tributaries to the Willamette River. The panel members include the developer of the software, Sitka Technology, and Daniel Newbery, Executive Director for the Johnson Creek Watershed Council. John is assisting the Clackamas Partnership with the development of a strategic restoration action plan focused on native fish recovery.    

​Cascade is very pleased to announce the completion of all construction activities and plant installation at the Chehalis Basin Mitigation Bank (CBMB) in Hanaford Valley. The purpose of CBMB is to restore wetland and floodplain functionality, and to restore wetland habitat to generate mitigation credits. Credits will be applied to future projects that will have an adverse impact on the aquatic environment, and that need mitigation to fulfill permit requirements.

The bank site was selected because it has the potential to provide ecological functional lift and would expand on two previously developed mitigation projects along Big Hanaford Creek. These two previously constructed sites combined provide 149.77 acres of successful wetland, riparian, and stream restoration on Big Hanaford Creek; construction of the CBMB will increase the area of contiguous floodplain restoration to approximately 327 acres.

Cascade has assisted with the design, MBI preparation, permitting, site preparation, and construction assistance on the CBMB site. CBMB construction included ditch filling, removal of sediment pond berms, restoring segments of seasonal and semi-permanent tributary streams, habitat structure placement, invasive species removal and native plant establishment. We are excited to see this work completed by our client at TransAlta Centralia Mining. MORE

Cascade has been the target of an employment scam.  Someone claiming to be John Runyon from Cascade Environmental Group is circulating a false job announcement on Craigslist, Zip Recruiter, and other employment websites.  This is not true. Cascade does not have any position openings at this time. Please do not respond to this false announcement – we believe this is a criminal operation intended to obtain personal information.