NCE Relevant Threatened and Endangered Species Work
Birds
New Century Environmental has conducted surveys for birds (including T&E birds) across a wide area of the northern and central Great Plains, including the states of Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Surveys have encompassed virtually all habitat types and niches, and all levels of protection, from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act protections at the low end, to full Endangered Species Act protections at the high end. Surveys are conducted to establish presence/absence, relative composition, breeding birds, population trends, population estimates, and estimates of reproductive effort and success. In order to guarantee survey acceptance, New Century Environmental leans heavily on early cooperation with regulators at all levels, pre-approval of methods and techniques, and positive confirmation that regulator concerns are current and complete. Preparatory work includes screening sites with online resources supplied by the states (e.g., NebraskaMap) or the USFWS (e.g., IPaC), and study of relevant state wildlife action plans and USFWS Birds of Conservation Concern for the local area and relevant Bird Conservation Region. Recent work has focused somewhat on raptors, prairie grouse, whooping cranes, interior least terns, piping plovers, and burrowing owls.
Fish
Fewer and fewer firms have taxonomic expertise related to Rocky Mountain west and Great Plains fisheries. NCE takes pride in their field collection prowess with over 100 years of diverse aquatic biology experience and our ability to find what is present in these unique surface waters. NCE biologists have worked in every major watershed in the Great Plains and continue to do so making important documentations and discoveries. NCE Principal is a past president of the Nebraska state chapter of the American Fisheries Society and played an active role in AFS while Gutzmer worked with the Electric Power Research Institute for 5 years representing the electric power generation sector and environmental impacts. NCE Principal received his Certified Fisheries Professional Emeritus Distinction in January 2020.
Bats
New Century Environmental has conducted acoustic bat surveys for bat species (including T&E bat species) in a broad region of the northern and central Great Plains and Midwest, including the states of Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. Bat surveys for T&E and permitting processes are conducted as necessary, according to the different requirements of the states and USFWS by region (e.g., Mountain Prairie Region 6, Midwest Region 3). Acoustic surveys are minimally invasive, and require no handling of T&E animals, and thereby no special permits. Acoustic surveys entail minimal risk of disturbance, contagion, or injury to T&E animals of high value and conservation priority—which is important, as the majority of all bat species are now T&E at the federal or state level in this broad area. Properly conducted, acoustic surveys are entirely sufficient for meeting the due diligence needs of the permitting process, including both clients and regulators at the local, state, and federal level. No alternative method produces better data quality in quantity sufficient to secure both reliable and valid management generalizations about specific, monitored locations. As of 2021, after more than a decade of work in six states, New Century Environmental has never had an acoustic survey judged insufficient by regulators.