October 4, 2024
Thank you Alex, Jon, and Megan, for spending your summer with us! We can’t do what we do without you! #madscientistassociates #makingadifference #interns #internship #fieldwork
October 4, 2024
Our botany team headed to Northeast Ohio over the summer to complete a VIBI (Vegetative Index of Biological Integrity). This intense survey helps determine a wetland’s quality by considering multiple metrics based on species’ habitat fidelity, diversity, non-native cover, etc. This site was a stunning example of a riverine headwater wetland, but it wasn’t easy to traverse, as you can see from the thigh-high muck. We logged about 80 plant species in our plot and were delighted by the number of animals that tolerated our presence. In this quarter-acre plot, we saw wood frogs, water snakes, innumerable dragons and damselflies, phantom midges, green frogs, many types of spiders, alder sawfly caterpillars, warblers and blackbirds, and some wild leafhopper nymphs (?). While traversing the wetland was […]
October 26, 2023
We are pleased to announce the addition of a new (to us) land management service – Prescribed Fire! Our Prescribed Fire Managers and trained line crew have gained valuable experience over hundreds of acres while volunteering on prescribed burns in Ohio and Michigan, and we are dedicated to providing this service in the safest manner possible you’d like to talk about burning opportunities, please contact HERE or call us at 614-818-9156.
April 4, 2023
25 YEARS! We’ve been in business 25 years this month. It would not be possible without the support of our amazing team! They truly help us Make A Difference for our clients and the communities in which we serve. Additionally, because of the trust our clients have put in us through the years , we have been able to flourish and expand the ways in which are able to support them and their project goals. It has truly been a journey – from the company’s start in our home for the first 10 years to our office in Uptown Westerville that required an expansion five years ago to accommodate our growing team. We could not have done it without the support of our family, friends, […]
February 17, 2023
As a woman-owned business, and a science-driven organization, it is important to us to celebrate the accomplishments of our staff, as well as the accomplishments of other women. This year, in honor of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (February 11), we hosted our first panel discussion at the Westerville Community Center. The event was organized and run by the “Women of MAD,” and featured 11 AMAZING women from across the state in the fields of environmental and sustainability sciences. The event was held in-person and broadcast on Zoom. Recordings and transcripts will be made available to schools and educators across the state that want to share career options and help expose kids to the fact that there are women and minorities […]
December 27, 2022
Each year, we are amazed and grateful for our amazing staff. Not only do they come to each other’s aid, put the hours in, problem solve, and challenge themselves- they keep each other laughing while doing it. We are truly lucky to have such a great team and we wanted to share some of their accomplishments from the year with you. Julius Duncan, Water Resources Engineer and EIT, joined our team in 2021 and recently earned his Level 2 Stream Restoration certificate. His background in environmental engineering and water resource management suits him well on the restoration team at MAD. He and Robert Keast, Restoration Designer, hit the ground running this year and have been instrumental in tackling our wetland and stream restoration projects across […]
December 27, 2022
Chris and Mark had the surprise of Governor DeWine visiting a wetland design/build site of ours (partnered with Access Engineering) in Mercer County to observe and promote the successes of the statewide H2Ohio program. The 89-acre Burntwood-Langenkamp site is owned by the Lake Facilities Authority and is managed by Mercer County. The request was for a treatment train style wetland that would intercept water from a channelized waterway (Burntwood Creek) and have water filter through over a mile of meandering marsh before reentering Coldwater Creek (immediately upstream of the confluence with Burntwood) and merging into Grand Lake St. Mary’s. We were able to create/restore 32-acres of emergent marsh habitat and reforest 10-acres and add prairie seed to surrounding uplands as a buffer to the stream […]
December 27, 2022
We’ve always touted ourselves as having a “team that works like MAD,” but we’ve got to hand it to our Technicians and Conservation Practitioners, who truly personify this phrase. This year they’ve aided in monitoring, wildlife and vegetative surveys, performed GIS and drone surveys, organized and completed planting efforts, volunteered time to environmental causes, and tackled 250 (TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY!) acres of invasive species management. They are lean, mean, honeysuckle-buckthorn-multiflora rose-porcelain berry-euonymus-pear-tree-of-heaven-bittersweet-privet-phragmites-cattail-reed canarygrass-garlic mustard-lesser celandine-thistle-knotweed-vinca-and English ivy killing machines! Each of our staff on this team are certified pesticide applicators or trained service persons and they use meticulous care when mixing and applying herbicide, including choosing the most effective chemical that poses the least amount of environmental damage, precisely targeting invasive species and minimizing […]
December 27, 2022
We have our first in-lieu fee wetland mitigation project under construction in Geauga County! This 30-acre site was previously row-cropped and pastured but is part of a larger (119-acre) property that contains a mosaic of depressional wetlands, ephemeral and perennial streams, and upland forest. Our design for this project will restore/add 8 acres of depressional, forested wetlands, and 18 acres forested buffer. Interesting elements of the design for this site include the repurposing of stones from a demolished barn to create a snake hibernaculum, using deadwood and felled trees for perching and basking habitat, and experimental hummock creation within pools. We have had reports of sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis), a state threatened species, already utilizing the site presumably as stopover habitat during their fall migration […]