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Cooke Scientific Services

Principal: Sarah Spear Cooke, Ph.D.
Year Founded: 1995
Specialty: Wetland and stream-related services
1999 Revenues: $300,000
Projected 2000 Revenues: $300,000

Wetlands and stream-related work provide the bulk of business for Cooke Scientific Services. Most recently, helping clients deal with the Endangered Species Act has become the No. 1 task for the six-member firm.
Cooke staff
This year, staff at Cooke Scientific Services expect to spend a lot of time helping small jurisdictions with permitting and environmental review as local governments attempt to balance growth and the Endangered Species Act.

CSS delineates and inventories wetlands, uplands and stream corridors; characterizes and assesses wetlands and streams; and designs and monitors wetland and stream mitigations.

The firm also serves as a consultant for many jurisdictions. In that role, staff assist with permitting, supervise and conduct monitoring programs, review mitigation plans and provide expert witness testimony as needed. As a small firm, CSS often works in teams with engineering and other companies to tackle large, complex projects.

Clients include private and corporate property owners, citizens' groups and developers' organizations, schools, utilities and Native American tribes.

According to Nancy Pascoe, spokesperson for the company, the firm is best known for its verifiable wetland boundaries and wetland mitigations.

A new undertaking for the firm this year has been producing a hydrology manual and updating the "Semi-Quantitative Assessment Method" -- a repeatable wetland assessment method. The task is particularly suitable for Sarah Cooke, principal of CSS. Cooke is an experienced science writer and is the editor of "Wetland Plants of Western Washington," a guide to wetland plants in the Pacific Northwest.

The ESA has changed the emphasis of CSS's projects to more fish and wildlife-oriented. During the upcoming year, CSS staff expect to spend a lot of time working on review of development projects and assisting small jurisdictions with permitting and environmental review as they figure out how to balance growth and the ESA.