Staff

John Vollmar

B.S. University of California, Berkeley: Natural History and Evolution, 1990

Mr. Vollmar, founder and president of Vollmar Consulting, is a senior botanist and wetland ecologist with over 17 years of professional experience. In recent years, Mr. Vollmar's work has focused on regional conservation planning, habitat restoration, and strategic mitigation planning projects involving large-scale, multidisciplinary biological studies, landscape-level habitat analyses, expert scientific review, and public outreach. In 2001-2003, Mr. Vollmar served as project director for a major ecological study of eastern Merced County. This study involved field surveys on more than 45,000 acres for 40+ rare plant and wildlife species, development of a multi-layered GIS database, data analyses to correlated species distributions with landscape features, and development of regional conservation planning and land management approaches. Study results are being used by Merced County and expert scientists to develop a regional conservation plan (HCP/NCCP) incorporating more than 300,000 acres of rangelands and farmland.

Mr. Vollmar is currently directing largescale resource survey and conservation planning studies in Sonoma, Solano, Tehama, and Kern Counties. In the field of land conservation, Mr. Vollmar has worked with numerous ranchers and other landowners to establish conservation easements, obtain easement funding, and develop and implement plans for the long-term monitoring and management of natural resources on easement lands. He has prepared numerous easement documentation reports for the Wildlife Conservation Board, The Nature Conservancy, and other entities.

John S. Hale

M.S. California State University, Chico: Botany, 1997
B.S. California State University, San Francisco:
Botany, 1974

Mr. Hale is a botanist and wetland ecologist with more than 17 years of professional experience. He is an expert on California's flora and plant communities with particular knowledge of northern California's botanical resources. He has conducted numerous surveys and studies throughout the region including several linear corridor and site survey projects in Lassen and Siskiyou Counties.

Mr. Hale's expertise includes special-status plant surveys, floristic inventories, noxious weed surveys, vegetation mapping, wetland delineations, and vegetation/biological monitoring. Through his project work, Mr. Hale has discovered numerous rare plant occurrences including several significant range extensions.

Wendy Renz

MS University of California, Berkeley:
Aquatic Ecology, 2009
B.A. University of California, Berkeley:
Molecular and Cell Biology, 2001
A.S. City College of San Francisco: Chemistry, 1999

Ms. Renz has an unusual range of experience from biological monitoring and recreational use studies to water quality sampling and laboratory analysis. Ms. Renz is currently participating in a project assessing the effects of human activity (clamming) on seal populations in Bolinas Lagoon and Tomales Bay, California. In another study, she independently researched and developed a new snowshoe program that was successfully implemented by CALAdventures in Berkeley, California. This study included risk analysis and a risk management plan. While working for the EPA, she conducted laboratory analyses of raw and potable water samples by EPA certified methods. She was the primary analyst for several wet-chem methods (alkalinity, ammonia, turbidity, etc.), and set-up and optimized a brand new RAPID PCR instrument and method for detection of pathogens in water.

Previously, she worked in biotech labs for over 7 years, gaining valuable skills in data analysis, instrument calibration and validation, technical writing, and project management. Ms. Renz recently joined Vollmar Consulting. She is currently using her chemistry and data analysis skills on a project whose aim is to restore tidal marsh habitat using San Francisco Bay dredge sediments. She is also managing the water quality sampling aspect of several vernal pool and seasonal wetland conservation and creation projects to better understand the balance of water quality and nutrients in preserved versus created wetlands.

Jake Schweitzer

B.A. University of California, Berkeley: Geography (concentration in physical geography and geographic information science), 1995

Mr. Schweitzer received his B.A. in Physical Geography from U.C. Berkeley in 1995 with an emphasis in ecology and computer mapping. He combines 9 years of experience as a professional vegetation and wetland ecologist with over 13 years of experience in cartography and geographic information science (GIS, remote sensing/image analysis, and GPS technology). His ecological focus has been in botanical and wetland sciences. He is federally certified to conduct dip-net surveys for large branchiopods in California aquatic habitats and is certified in the vegetation mapping techniques developed by the California Native Plant Society. He has conducted surveys and produced vegetation and wetland maps at various scales for innumerable projects throughout northern California. Mr. Schweitzer has been a docent for the past three years at the East Bay Regional Park Botanic Garden, teaching native California plant ecology to the public.

Mr. Schweitzer has applied his skills to a wide array of projects, from surveying and modeling threats posed by Sudden Oak Death, to performing large-scale botanical and wildlife surveys, to conducting topographic surveys of vernal pool landscapes. He has served as lead field ecologist and GIS specialist for many of Vollmar Consulting’s regional conservation and land use projects from the Bay Area to the San Joaquin Valley and Sierra Nevada Foothills. He has most recently led botanical survey and mapping efforts at the Concord Naval Weapons Station (eastern Contra Costa County), the Skylawn Cemetery region (along the ridge top between San Mateo and Half Moon Bay), the Robinson Ranch Conservation Easement (eastern Merced County), and Rancho Arroyo Seco (western Amador County). These sites encompass a wide variety of habitats. He is also currently involved in several large-scale wetland delineation and vernal pool restoration projects within the San Joaquin Valley.

Cassie Pinnell

B.A. Mills College: Environmental Studies and
Biology, 2004

Ms. Pinnell is a biologist with more than six years of professional experience focused on California’s habitats and special-status species. Since earning her B.A., she has taken additional courses in wetlands restoration, watershed assessment, California tiger salamander and large branchiopod identification.

Ms. Pinnell has worked throughout California within seasonal and perennial wetlands, riparian corridors, coastal marshes, native and non-native grasslands, and desert and montane bioregions. Her work includes special-status species surveys, habitat assessments, wetland delineations, and aquatic invertebrate surveys. She also prepares land management plans, mitigation and monitoring plans, biological assessments and assists with the preparation of 401 and 404 permits and bank enabling instruments (BEI).

Her current projects include biological surveys, wetland delineations, conservation planning, large-scale land management plans, and conducting habitat assessments and long-term monitoring for special-status aquatic invertebrates, amphibians and plant species in the Bay Delta and Central Valley regions. Ms. Pinnell is proficient with California botany and vegetation community classification. She is also permitted to conduct surveys for listed aquatic invertebrates including listed branchiopods and California tiger salamander throughout their ranges in California (Permit #TE035336-2).

Josh Phillips

M.E.M. University of California, Santa Barbara: Environmental Science and Management, 1999 B.S. University of California, Davis: Environmental
Biology, 1995

Mr. Phillips has 9 years of professional experience as a wildlife biologist and ecologist. He has a comprehensive understanding of the environmental planning process, including expertise in sensitive biological resources and the state and federal regulations protecting these resources (e.g., CEQA, the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, the federal Clean Water Act, and the California Fish and Game Code).

Mr. Phillips has extensive experience analyzing the effects of development projects on biological resources and has prepared numerous biological resource chapters of EIRs, Biological Assessments for Section 7 consultations, and Biological Constraints Evaluations. Mr. Phillips also has conducted special-status species surveys, habitat evaluations, wetland delineations, vegetation mapping, mitigation design and implementation, and coordinating with state and federal resource agencies. He holds a section 10(a)(1)(A) recovery permit to conduct surveys for federally-listed vernal pool branchiopods (i.e., fairy and tadpole shrimp) and has conducted numerous surveys for these species. He has also organized and conducted surveys for special-status plants, California red-legged frog, California tiger salamander, western pond turtle, western burrowing owl, nesting birds, Chinook salmon, and steelhead.

Mr. Phillips has managed and participated in large-scale projects involving complex biological issues throughout northern and southern California. He has worked on projects for a variety of public and private sector clients, including the cities of Hercules, Richmond, Pinole, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, Watsonville, and Calistoga, as well as Caltrans, the University of California at Santa Cruz, the San Francisco Department of Public Works, Del Webb, Verizon, Newhall Ranch, and Tejon Ranch.

Rebecca Bewley Wayman

M.S. University of California, Davis: Ecology, 2005
B.S. University of California, Berkeley: Conservation and Resource Studies, Minor in Forestry, 1999

Ms. Wayman has nine years of professional experience in vegetation and wetland science, management and scientific research, specializing in botany, vegetation ecology, and seasonal wetland ecology. She has four years of professional experience conducting surveys for listed and non-listed vernal pool large branchiopods. She is the director of Vollmar Consulting’s Sierra Foothills office in Nevada City.

Ms. Wayman has conducted rare plant and invasive species surveys, large branchiopod surveys, larval amphibian surveys, vegetation mapping and assessments, wetland delineations, and plant community research in valley, foothill and mountain ecosystems. She has conducted numerous biological resource surveys in vernal pool, annual grassland, foothill oak woodland, and montane coniferous forest communities, including special habitats such as gabbro soil areas and volcanic table areas. She is experienced at delineating wetlands in a variety of habitats and writing accompanying reports. She provides GIS support to Vollmar Consulting’s GIS specialist, Jake Schweitzer.

Ms. Wayman has served as a project manager on several projects including preparation and implementation of a monitoring program for CRLF breeding ponds on preserve land, long-term vernal pool aquatic invertebrate and floristic monitoring on preserve land, and botanical surveys on two ranger districts of the Plumas National Forest. For three years she served as the lead botanical researcher for the Teakettle Ecosystem Experiment, an ecological study in the southern Sierra Nevada. She conducted research on the effects of forest management practices on understory plant biodiversity and species composition, and is the lead author of the paper, “Initial response of a mixed-conifer understory community to burning and thinning restoration treatments” (Forest Ecology and Management, 2007).

Ms. Wayman is federally certified to conduct aquatic surveys for CTS and large branchiopods throughout California. Ms. Wayman has also assisted California Native Plant Society personnel in conducting Rapid Assessments of vegetation types in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Roxanne Hulme

B.S. University of California, Berkeley:
Conservation and Resource Studies, 2010

Ms. Hulme has a varied background as a biologist/ecologist in California wetlands, grasslands and mountainous regions. With a focus on Sustainable Land Management within her degree, she has both academic and professional understanding of integrated ecosystem management and restoration. With Vollmar Consulting, Ms. Hulme has assisted in botany, large branchiopod, amphibian and conservation easement surveys.

Ms. Hulme has previously worked in the academic setting, studying natural predator use for agricultural products, air quality in different biomes and most recently has assisted in amphibian surveys and studies in California rivers. Other professional experience includes two years at an organic ranch and vineyard and an internship with Environmental Compliance at the Sonoma County Water Agency, working on CEQA/NEPA documents as well as field watershed assessments of biological life.

Stephanie Cepellos

B.S. Fordham University:
Business Management and Economics, 2005
GIS Cerificate San Francisco State University, 2009

Ms. Cepellos is a certified GIS technician, with a background in economics and business management. She has been working in riparian ecosystem restoration for the last five years. She has collaborated with scientists in various ecological disciplines on map production and data management and analysis for projects related to upslope sediment reduction, native forest and grasslands restoration, and invasive plants removal and management. Ms. Cepellos has also had significant experience in cartographic design in creating maps for various publications, displays, reports, and fundraising proposals.

Her focus is on GIS and graphic design in cartography, with an emphasis on showcasing and modeling wetland restoration ecology and conservation. Ms. Cepellos' current interests and projects include the functionality of natural versus created vernal pools, amphibian ecology and geology.

Vir McCoy

B.A. University of California, Berkeley:
Geography, 1992

Mr. McCoy has over 15 years of educational and professional experience in the fields of wildlife biology, restoration ecology, and botany. He has used his diverse field experience and technical skills on numerous projects throughout California and Arizona in a variety of habitats. He has provided qualitative and quantitative input to many wildlife and ecological field studies, assessments, large restoration projects, sensitive species surveys, species natural history summaries, long-term monitoring plans, and wetland delineations.

As a wildlife biologist, he has conducted surveys for numerous plant and wildlife species in a variety of habitats, including many State and Federally Threatened and Endangered species throughout California and Arizona. He has extensive experience with avian, mammalian, reptile, amphibian, and invertebrate species. He holds collecting permits for California tiger salamander, fairy shrimp and California red-legged frog.

As a restoration ecologist, Mr. McCoy is an expert on the ecology, delineation and restoration of several habitat types including experience with coastal sage scrub, oak woodlands, and wetland habitats such as vernal pools and salt and freshwater marshes. He is familiar with characteristic soils, vegetation and hydrology associated with these habitat types throughout much of California and Arizona.

As a botanist, he has conducted rare plant surveys, floristic inventories and habitat assessments throughout California and Arizona. He has direct experience with many rare plant species. In addition, he has studied herbal and medicinal plant science.