Herrera welcomes back Julie Hampden after working for the past eight months as the Technical and Nearshore Coordinator for King County’s WRIA 9 (Green-Duwamish, Central Puget Sound) Watershed Coordination Services Group. Her position, half-funded by local jurisdictions via an interlocal agreement and half-funded by King County, was housed at King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, Water and Land Resources Division. Ms. Hampden returns to Herrera as a staff environmental scientist and policy analyst with 8 of years experience in fisheries, wildlife, natural resource management, and education. She has worked with local agencies in preparing environmental procedures manuals to ensure compliance with existing regulations, has facilitated technical steering committees and work groups, has coordinated white papers and conferences on environmental regulations and technical issues, and has developed course materials and taught several courses addressing the Endangered Species Act section (7) consultation process. Ms. Hampden also served as an in-house biologist at WSDOT and at USFWS, serving as a WSDOT-USFWS liaison, conducting section (7) consultations on behalf of USFWS.

Herrera also welcomes Chase Barton, the newest member of our River Science and Geomorphology group. Mr. Barton has 7 years of experience in engineering geology with a recent emphasis on geomorphologic analysis of channel networks, open-channel engineering, and the construction of sediment budgets. He has a thorough understanding of the dynamic variables that affect landscape processes and his recent work has included evaluations of bank stability and the production of sediment arising from channel enlargement and landslides. Mr. Barton joins Herrera river restoration specialists working on the Nooksack, Bogachiel, and Cispus rivers.