About Us

Unaka Environmental, LLC (Unaka), is an environmental consulting firm based in Asheville, North Carolina, specializing in ecological services and restoration for clients across North America and abroad. Founded by Jeremy Schewe, PWS, in March of 2005, Unaka has managed hundreds of projects (over $12M) across the United States and around the world. Our projects have focused on helping our client’s meet and exceed expectations of environmental regulatory parameters in respect to the US Clean Water Act (CWA), the US Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the US Clean Air Act (CAA). Specifically, projects are focused on “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) and waters of individual states (ie streams, wetlands, ponds, lakes, seeps, and springs), as well as habitat characterization and surveys for federally (and state) endangered species (T&E). Typically, our clients’ projects are triggered by regulatory requirements (CWA, ESA, or CAA) for property development, transfers, and conservation easements.

Thought Leadership

Unaka is led by Jeremy Schewe, a professional wetland scientist (PWS #3186), who is not only a seasoned senior ecologist, botanist, GIS technician, and environmental consultant with over twenty years of experience, but also he launched Ecobot, a revolutionary software for the environmental industry that creates massive levels of efficiency in the industry, with co-founding partners, Robb Bennett and Lee Lance, in 2018. Ecobot empowers wetland scientists, project managers, and GIS specialists to complete complex geospatial projects 35-50% more efficiently than with traditional methods - meaning less cost to the clients. The co-evolution of scientific GPS hardware has also enabled Unaka and other Ecobot users the ability to record sub meter and centimeter accurate field surveys, saving additional costs on land surveyor fees traditionally completed after field studies are completed by environmental teams.

Services

Unaka fields multiple teams for WOTUS and T&E related projects across the US as well as abroad. We draw from a broad palette of scientific specialists, taxonomists, engineers, GIS managers. Unaka is often hired to help with complex, sensitive, and/or otherwise difficult projects with challenging scheduling parameters on both the landscape level and for small, local projects. Unaka provides regulatory ecological services expertise with proficiency in the following areas:

  1. Wetlands and streams delineations and classifications.
  2. USACE 404 permit applications and State 401 Water Quality Certifications for potential impacts to WOTUS and state waters.
  3. Additional Impacts Analysis for Prevention of Significant Deterioration Air Construction Permit Application (PSD) application.
  4. Threatened and Endangered species habitat characterizations (federal, state, and USFS).
  5. Threatened and Endangered species surveys and biological assessment (BA) preparation.
  6. Baseline ecological inventories for biodiversity studies (ESG) and conservation easements.
  7. Mitigation bank monitoring and due diligence studies.
  8. Stormwater monitoring and sample collecting.
  9. Botanical inventories/surveys.
  10. Biogenic emission inventories and modeling (ozone standards).
  11. Ecological design and restoration, including bioengineering and restoration for stormwater BMPs, streams, wetlands, shorelines, and other natural areas.
  12. ArcGIS Pro geospatial studies.

Services Provided to

Unaka has provided services on both public and private lands to the following entities:

Details on Unaka Key Service Areas

Botanical, Natural Community Surveys and Mitigation Site Monitoring

Over 20 years of experience of flora and natural community surveys in the Americas and the European Union including Botanical Inventories, Natural Community Delineations, Baseline Ecological Inventories, Threatened & Endangered Species Surveys, Sensitive Habitat Surveys, geobotanical inventories, wetland/stream mitigation site monitoring, estate planning, conservation easements, and ground-truthing for geospatial land use data.

Locations: Experience in surveying flora and natural communities in a wide geographic range including, in North America: Intermountain, North American Desert, Southern Appalachian, Cumberland Plateau, Piedmont, Southeast Coastal Plain, Mixed Wood Plain, Mississippi/Ohio River Alluvial, Southern Desertic Basins/Plains & Mountains, and Wasatch & Uinta Mountains; Caribbean: Caribbean Humid Mountains & Valleys; Central America: Montane Cloud Forest; and, in Europe: Blanket Bogs, Celtic Broadleaf Forest, Western European Broadleaf Forest, Alps Conifer & Mixed Forest, and Scandinavian & Russian Taiga.

Methods: gross ocular estimates, intuitive controlled, quadrats, transects, Carolina Vegetation Survey protocol, remote sensing, and GIS modeling.

Technical Climbing, Rappelling, Scuba Diving and Spelunking for Biological Inventories

Over 24 years of experience with technical climbing, rappelling, spelunking, and other technical approaches to sensitive natural areas for biological surveys and documentation in North America, Central America, Europe, and the Caribbean. Specific projects are dispersed among appropriate headings (sensitive community studies, threatened and endangered species studies, botanical surveys, etc.) in this curriculum vitae.

Locations: Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Puerto Rico; Ireland, Switzerland, and Guatemala.

Wetland Delineations, Stream Classifications & Buffer Determinations

Over 20 years of experience with wetland delineations, stream classifications, and buffer determinations across the United States, with a specific focus in the Southeast, the Midwest, the Arid West, and the Caribbean. Unaka also is seasoned in preparing technical reports for jurisdictional determinations, wetlands/streams determination reports, US Army Corps of Engineers 404 permit (Nationwide and General) applications, individual State 401 Certificates, calculating in lieu fee determinations, conservation planning, locating mitigation banks, and more.

Methods: USACE’s Wetlands Delineation methodology, EPA’s National Wetlands Conditional Assessment protocol, transects, remote sensing (National Wetland Inventory), and GIS modeling.

Threatened, Endangered & Species of Concern Surveys

Over 20 years of experience with surveying for Threatened, Endangered, and Species of Concern (T&E and TES), as well as protecting vital habitat and propagation of vascular specimens. Projects are often regulatory driven by the Endangered Species Act (ESA), 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq. and NEPA on public lands, or in response to potential impacts by climate change, development, mining, oil and gas, or right-of-way easements impeding on private and common lands.

Experience in surveying TES species in North America in the following ecoregions: Southern Appalachian Mountains, Cumberland Plateau, Piedmont, Southeast Coastal Plain, Mixed Wood Plain, Mississippi/Ohio River Alluvial, Southern Desertic Basins/Plains & Mountains, and Wasatch & Uinta Mountains; Caribbean: Caribbean Humid Mountains & Valleys; Central America: Montane Cloud Forest; and, in Europe: Celtic Broadleaf Forest, Blanket Bogs, Western European Broadleaf Forest.

GPS & ArcGIS Modeling, Mapping, and Field Equipment

Over 16 years of experience with utilizing handheld GPS units (Juniper Archer, Eos Arrow, Garmin & Trimble units) to collect field data and locate plot locations, as well as ArcGIS Pro and (limited) AutoCAD modeling and mapping. ArcGIS applications have been used for simple mapping of habitats, species locations, sensitive communities, land management planning for small-scale projects, as well as for more complex projects including regional or cross-regional ecological assessments and risk analysis. Projects have been conducted across North America and internationally.

Capabilities: Software capabilities include ArcGIS Pro, and AutoCAD 2010. Hardware data collection via GNSS Bluetooth receivers paired with iPhone (Eos Arrow series or Trimble R1).

Ecological Design & Restoration

Over 22 years of experience with sustainable land development & management consulting, design & construction management for bioengineered ecological restoration/mitigation projects, as well as wayside exhibit development for natural and cultural resources. Unaka utilizes local genotype native plants respective to the ecoregions of a project as well as native mycorrhizae soil inoculants in his specifications to ensure the success of restoration projects, Best Management Projects, and mitigation efforts. Unaka has been instrumental in the design and implementation phases of various ecological restoration projects. Projects have been conducted in the eastern United States and in the European Union.

Project Types: biological storm water retention, freshwater ponds, wetlands, streams, stream banks, species mitigation banks, freshwater shorelines, brownfields, and upland recreation areas.

Air Quality - PSD Applications

Over 20 years of experience with support to projects concerning air quality in respect to ecological risk assessment. Unaka has over 10 years of experience completing Additional Impacts Analyses (AIA), pursuant to 40 CFR 51.166(o), as part of an applicant for a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit. The required AIA addresses projected air quality impacts to soils, vegetation, and animals; and, possible impairment to visibility, specifically in Class I and Class II Modeling Domains for dispersion modeling. We have also worked on biogenic emissions projects in respect to regions out of compliance for low atmospheric ozone standards (NAAQS).

Locations: North Carolina, Nevada, Utah, Illinois, Florida, and New York.

Insurance

Unaka is fully licensed and insured.

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