Blair Leisure, M.Sc. – IRIS Principal and Senior Scientist
Blair Leisure M.Sc. is a Senior Biologist with over 20 years of experience working on wetland, wildlife, and threatened/endangered species assessments, impact analysis, federal and state permitting, native plant/habitat restoration and mitigation, and long-term monitoring on projects throughout the Rocky Mountain West. Blair has conducted additional biological research, reporting, permitting and mitigation work on projects in California, New Mexico, Nebraska, North Dakota, Alaska, New Zealand, and Nepal. Blair founded IRIS in 2007 and has worked with the IRIS Project Team on a variety of projects mainly in Colorado. The IRIS vision is to assist with project planning and design while avoiding and minimizing impact to natural resources and working to enhance the site specific resources. IRIS has completed many successful projects from the design stage through plant/seed installation through agency final approval and project sign-off. Blair has long-term association with state and federal entities involved in project permitting and long-term biological experience in native plant restoration and mitigation to achieve project success.
Beatrice Szadokierski – IRIS Senior Project Assistant and Office Manager
Beatrice is an integral part of the IRIS Project Team since assisting with the founding of the company in 2007. Beatrice assists with all aspects of IRIS project related support, data analysis, excel sheet preparation, photograph documentation, report production, and final product shipment. Beatrice assists with IRIS marketing opportunities, budget preparation, proposal production, company staffing, office supplies, and daily office need organization. Beatrice is responsible for all IRIS accounting, billing, and accounts receivables. Beatrice is a versatile administrative professional with expertise in office management, financial oversight, budgeting, general accounting, contract implementation, project research and organization. She has a background in environmental project development and international operations derived from managing irrigation projects in Asia for 14 years. Prior to that Beatrice worked for the European Union in Washington DC.
Allison Cowie, M.Sc. – IRIS Senior Project Scientist
Allison Cowie M.Sc. is a Senior Project Scientist who has worked on a variety of IRIS wetland, wildlife, threatened & endangered species, and native plant restoration projects since 2008. Allison has over 20 years of experience working on wetland, upland, riparian, and river restoration projects in Colorado, Oregon, California, and Nebraska. She has most recently been involved in wetland creation and management for mitigation banking purposes. Allison has years of advanced training in wetland delineation, wetland, riparian, and native plant restoration and enhancement, and in wetland mitigation banking. She is an excellent field biologist, scientific researcher, and report writer. Allison is an invaluable member of the IRIS Project Team.
Christopher Rice, M.Sc. – GPS System Technician and GIS Specialist
Christopher Rice is the IRIS Global Positioning System (GPS) System Technician and Geographical Information System (GIS) Specialist. Chris has eight years of experience as a GIS professional and seven years of experience as an Information Technology professional in Colorado. This unique combination of GIS and IT experience is highly valuable, as GIS relies heavily upon computer hardware, software, and networking resources. Chris assists IRIS in project work and reporting through providing highly-detailed project area exhibits that assist in clearly understanding project features, scope, and boundary. In addition, GIS is a powerful tool for analyzing changes and spatial patterns in the data. Chris produces the highest-quality mapping and geospatial analysis for IRIS, which allows for excellent project deliverables and keeps IRIS in the industry forefront. Chris holds a Master of Science in Geography from the University of Denver. Chris’s own company, Colorado Cartographics, Ltd., provides a variety of products and services, ranging from spatial analysis, custom cartographic exhibits, and custom web-based mapping applications.
Christopher J. Hazen M.S. – IRIS Senior Project Scientist
Chris is a Senior Project Scientist with a Master’s degree in Geosciences and over 18 years of experience working in the Rocky Mountain west. His work includes wetland delineation, Section 404 permitting, wetland mitigation (wetland creation and restoration), CDPHE permitting, and long-term monitoring largely in southwestern Colorado. Chris was the Director of Environmental Projects for the Telluride Ski and Golf Company for 10 years and was instrumental in creating and restoring many acres of required wetland mitigation. He has developed and administrated Stormwater Management Plans on projects including water quality sampling and analysis for monitoring and reporting. Chris has completed Environmental and Biological Assessments for upland/riparian areas and for Threatened and Endangered Species evaluations.
Wetlands
IRIS Mitigation and Design, Inc. (IRIS) is involved in all aspects of wetland analysis, delineation, permitting and required mitigation work including wetland creation, maintenance
Threatened and Endangered Species & Wildlife
IRIS Mitigation and Design, Inc. (IRIS) specializes in wildlife and threatened and endangered (T&E) species assessments, including identifying the presence/absence of species and their habitat.
Native Plants Restoration
IRIS Mitigation and Design, Inc. (IRIS) specializes in all aspects of native plant habitat restoration in the Rocky Mountain Region including:
• Plains Grassland and Meadow…
Soil and Water Quality
IRIS Mitigation and Design, Inc. (IRIS) conducts soil sampling and soil quality analysis early on in project design to assist in appropriate plant selection and soil amendment planning.
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