This article was originally published prior to the founding of Eocene and the information included here represents events and news that occurred under our company subsidiaries.
July 1, 2023
Eocene Environmental Group’s Vice President of Business Development Jeff Davis gave a presentation to U.S. Forest Service (USFS) staff members about the importance of hiring support services through third-party environmental contractors. Jeff, alongside Reggie Woodruff, energy program manager, and Elrand Denson, assistant director – land stewardship, traveled to the Forest Service headquarters located near the White House in Washington, D.C., to give the presentation. In the room were USFS employees, including realty specialists, line officers, wildlife specialists, timber employees, environmental compliance specialists, and heritage and cultural resource staff members.
The presentation focused on a holistic view of what to expect when hiring a third-party environmental contractor, including how and when to select one, along with roles, responsibilities, benefits and processes. A summary of what participants learned about from the Eocene team:
- Types of Services a Third-Party Provides: administrative support, environmental compliance development and review, resource surveys and report development, operation plans, compliance inspections, long-term reclamation and monitoring, and right-of-way (ROW) and vegetation management.
- Roles and Responsibilities of a Third-Party: client is the decision-maker, contractor reports to the client, an established communication plan helps identify roles and responsibilities, as well as lines of communication.
- Why Use a Third-Party: Coordination and administration of records, compliance with authorizations, permits and approvals, protection of sensitive resources, client has limited staff with heavy workloads, etc.
- When to Consider a Third-Party: Large projects, multi-state projects, complex projects involving multiple agencies, sensitive resources, high public interest, limited staff with heavy workloads.
- Benefits of Hiring a Third-Party: Supplement existing staff, resource expertise, advanced technology support, boots on the ground support, project knowledge and expertise.
Following the in-person presentation, a recorded version of the training was conducted so the Forest Service could share it internally on their intranet for all their regions to have access to the information. In addition, Jeff and Elisabeth Semler, Eocene’s client outreach manager, joined over 200 USFS participants, as well as some additional presenters, in a virtual Q&A session. The Q&A acted as a follow-up to the recorded presentation.