Sylvia Copeland is a wildlife biologist with expertise in wildlife field investigations, habitat evaluations, and environmental planning. Since 1998, Sylvia has been involved in ecological research and has worked on various flora, fauna, and ecosystems in the Intermountain West. She has been involved with environmental reviews of projects including oil and gas, water resources, recreation, grazing, and forest management. She is experienced in compliance with the Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Sylvia has also used GIS to map wildlife habitat, land cover types, study area boundaries and locations, and to conduct home range analyses.

SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE

NEPA Compliance. Sylvia has been involved in reviewing and producing environmental assessments (EAs), environmental impact statements (EISs), and biological assessments (BAs) for various types of land uses such as silvicultural practices, grazing, recreation, water resources, oil and gas development, transmission lines, and communication facilities.

Endangered and Sensitive Species Studies / Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Sylvia's experience with federally and state-listed threatened, endangered, and sensitive species includes conducting field studies, reviewing BAs, and conducting Section 7 consultations in compliance with the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. She has also drafted conservation measures for mitigation of potential impacts to federally listed species.

Wildlife and Fisheries Biology. Sylvia has supervised and conducted field investigations for terrestrial and aquatic species including raptors, neotropical migrant birds, waterfowl, marshbirds, salmonids, mussels, amphibians, and insects. She has surveyed various ecosystems, and the species associated with them, in the Intermountain West including shrub-steppe, ponderosa pine, and mixed coniferous forests, as well as riparian forests, marshes, reservoirs, and streams. Sylvia has designed and performed field research and analyzed, interpreted, and documented results, and prepared technical reports.

Vegetation Monitoring. Sylvia has extensive experience with measuring vegetation and evaluating habitats. She has measured and identified native versus nonnative grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees (live/dead) in shrub-steppe, pinyon pine-juniper forests, ponderosa pine forests, mixed coniferous forests, and riparian forests in Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, and California. She also has used a variety of techniques and equipment to measure habitat.

scopeland@eroresources.com