Orbis Environmental Consulting

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Managing property or planning a project?
We’re here to help.

We specialize in identifying and assessing sensitive cultural and natural resources to seamlessly integrate them into your long-term plans. Whether your project involves endangered species, wetlands, or cultural resources, we’ll guide you through the regulatory process, ensuring your decisions keep your project on schedule and within budget.

Need permits? We’ll help you navigate procedures, follow restrictions, and avoid costly delays or compliance issues. Looking to enhance your team’s skills? Our custom training on topics like wetland identification and native plants is tailored to your needs—whether it’s a quick refresher or an in-depth seminar.

Proudly servicing the Chicago, Midwest, and Great Lakes regions including Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

Cultural Resource Management

We can help you identify significant cultural resources like archaeological sites, historic structures, or culturally important natural resources, and help manage potential impacts to these places.

If your area does contain sensitive cultural resources we’ll help you understand any risks so you can feel confident moving forward. We can help you work with members of the public, landowners, officials, and regulatory agencies to keep your project on schedule.

We can help you comply with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and other cultural regulations.

When to Use Our Services:

Agency Coordination: Consult with local, state, and federal agencies under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

Archaeological Surveys and Assessments: Phase I archaeological surveys, Phase II evaluation, and Phase III data recovery and mitigation.

Background Research and Desktop Review: State Historic Preservation Office records, archival research, historic maps and aerial photographs; LiDAR imagery; environmental records.

Historic Architecture Survey: Reconnaissance level surveys, intensive level surveys, evaluation and eligibility assessments.

Section 106 Documentation: 800.11 documentation, public notices, public outreach.

Preservation Planning: Site assessments, cultural resources management plans.

Ecological & Wildlife Surveys, Assessment, and Planning

Our ecologists specialize in identifying and managing sensitive plants and wildlife, including rare, threatened, and endangered species. We provide essential stewardship services such as floristic inventories, plant community mapping, and surveys for species of conservation concern. For those managing natural areas, we offer quantitative sampling to track ecological changes over time, as well as developing comprehensive natural area management plans.

We conduct habitat assessments, botanical inventories, and surveys across a wide range of species and habitats, including amphibians, mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and terrestrial insects. Additionally, we provide wetland delineations, permitting, and mitigation monitoring to assess legal wetland boundaries and their functional quality. Our team also includes a certified FAA Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologist and federal permits for conducting endangered bat surveys, ensuring we can support diverse projects and regulatory needs.

When to Use Our Services:

Wildlife Surveys and Assessments: Endangered species surveys (Section 7 permitting), bat mist netting, biological assessments, acoustic monitoring, roost tree surveys, emergence counts, and wildlife hazard assessments for airports.

Plant and Habitat Management: Botanical inventories, floristic quality assessments, aquatic plant surveys, invasive species monitoring, tree surveys,  and plant community mapping.

Wetland Services: Delineations, permitting (Section 404/401 Clean Water Act), mitigation monitoring, and functional quality assessments.

Ecological Planning and Restoration: Habitat assessments, natural area management plans, quantitative sampling for long-term site monitoring, and ecological restoration planning.

Compliance Inspections: SWPPP inspections, SESC inspections, and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance

Workshops

Whether your staff needs specific technical training or you need to understand how environmental regulations might affect you, Orbis can help. Our botanists are recognized experts on the flora of the Great Lakes and Midwest States and can customize a workshop to help you learn to manage and conserve sensitive natural resources.

Customized Plant Workshops

We lead specialized workshops on difficult plant families and genera to provide you or your staff with the information they need to better understand how to identify the taxa within the subject group.

Plant Identification Training

We conduct plant identification training courses for regulators, consultants, land trusts, naturalists, park staff, and others to provide valuable insight on species identification. Training sessions can focus on a specific group of plants or can be broader to cover a wider range of the flora.

Tessa M. Aby-Kruger

Botanist

Tessa is a geologist, botanist and vegetation ecologist with over 10 years of experience managing and conducting projects, specializing in ecological and floristic inventories, rare plant surveys, and vegetation monitoring. She also performs wetland evaluations and is a guided hike leader.

Jeremy Sheets

Senior Wildlife Biologist, Vice President

Jeremy is a founding member of Orbis and directs its ecological and wildlife surveys, assessment and planning services, and brings over 20 years’ experience conducting various wildlife surveys with a focus on bat ecology and urban wildlife management.


Jeremy has managed wildlife projects for private firms and the public sector including for wind facilities, pipelines, roadways, military bases, and airports. Jeremy is proficient in wildlife management/control techniques, wildlife identification, threatened and endangered species, and surveying and analysis techniques for mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects. Jeremy is a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologists who develop Wildlife Hazard Assessments (WHA) and Wildlife Hazard Management Plans (WHMP) for airports. Jeremy is qualified to inspect erosion, sediment and stormwater plans, and their implementation. Furthermore, Jeremy is federally permitted to conduct endangered bat surveys in USFWS Regions 3, 4, 5, and 6 and includes acoustic surveys, mist-netting, and radio telemetry.

J Ryan Duddleson​

Senior Archaeologist, Principal

Ryan is a founding member of Orbis and directs its cultural resource management services, and brings over 20 years’ experience helping clients assess and minimize the risk of impacting places with cultural value.


Ryan works with public sector clients including federal, state, and municipal government, as well as private firms in energy, transportation, industrial, and development sectors. He also coordinates with agencies and consulting parties involved with the National Environmental Policy Act, Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, and other related cultural resource laws and regulations. He performs archival research, analysis, and excavation. Ryan also has experience in artifact and archival curation. He has applied innovative techniques to traditional artifact analysis, such as examining organic residues from prehistoric pottery to determine prior contents. Ryan also has experience with human remains in archaeological settings. Ryan meets the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Archaeology and Historic Preservation, 48 FR. 44716 and is a Qualified Professional Archaeologist in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.