What is Red Wing Environmental Consulting Service’s Approach?

Having wetlands, streams and critical habitat areas can elicit a variety of opinions from property owners. Some would relish the opportunity to enjoy the added biodiversity and aesthetic beauty on their property. To other property owners, such areas pose an obstacle to subdividing or building a driveway. 

Red Wing will consider the possibilities of every project and investigate the possibility of it becoming approved.  The permitting agency has final approval of the project so it is essential to consider the critical areas codes and regulatory tendencies of the county or city that would approve the project.

Chris Holcomb has worked in such diverse jurisdictions as King County, Thurston County, Kittitas County and the City of Kirkland and is knowledgeable about what these jurisdictions are likely to approve. Red Wing Environmental Consulting Service follows the appropriate guidelines for delineating and rating wetlands and thoroughly documents conclusions. The US Army Corps of Engineers and the Washington Department of Ecology have established these guidelines.

For projects that have potential, Red Wing Environmental Consulting Service guarantees its work.  This means that if the permitting agencies disagree with minor aspects of our work, we will correct the problem and resubmit the permit materials with no charge to you. Red Wing believes that the permitting process should be reasonably priced.  For this reason, we design contracts that assume an hourly fee that is sufficiently lower than other firms.

If the project has potential but requires mitigation, Red Wing will calculate the amount of mitigation needed to compensate for losses and assist you with wetland mitigation banking, in-lieu fee mitigation or traditional on-site mitigation. For an on-site mitigation approach, Red Wing will devise a simple wetland restoration or wetland enhancement plan that has a high probability of success if it is maintained after installation.   On-site wetland mitigation is a complicated venture that requires, careful plant selection, well-timed installation steps and several years of maintenance.  Over the decades, society’s track record on wetland mitigation has only been successful half the time. Because of this, Red Wing Environmental believes in devising plans that are appropriate for the site and sufficiently compensate for wetland and wetland buffer losses, yet are as simple as possible. If costs are controlled on the design phase it will be easier for you to afford to maintain the mitigation area in the future.