• Indigenous community referral assistance/management
• Environmental training and technology integration
• Expert scientific review and representation for industry and government consultation
• Ecosystem classification, mapping and accuracy assessments
• Strategic land and resource management planning, including multi-faceted regional-scale planning
• Biodiversity/biophysical assessments
• Residual and cumulative effects analysis
• Environmentally sensitive area mapping
• Climate change impact and adaptation planning
• Traditional plant and cultural land use surveys and field guide development
• Species and ecosystems at risk assessment and field guides
• Wildlife habitat assessments and supply modelling
• Fish habitat assessments and stranding surveys
• Environmental assessment and permitting support for land development
• Environmental management plans and construction monitoring
• Restoration and planting prescriptions
• Aquatic and riparian assessments: Riparian Areas Protection Regulation (RAPR) and Section 11 (Water Sustainability Act) assessments
• Contaminated sites management, monitoring and remediation
• Wildfire protection planning
• Stage 1 and 2 Preliminary Site Investigations
• Detailed Site Investigations
• Phase I/II/III Environmental Site Assessments
• Waste and landfill management
• Hazardous material and soil monitoring and remediation planning
RELEVANT PROJECT EXAMPLES:
• BC Hydro Site C Fish stranding assessment
• Sto:lo / Collaborative Stewardship Forum – Traditional plant habitat predictive modelling
• Shackan Indian Band – Terrestrial rcosystem mapping (Lower Nicola Landscape Unit)
• MFLNRORD – Predictive ecosystem mapping accuracy data collection – Provincial PEM Initiative
• Taseko Mines Yellowhead Project – Environmental assessment (Vegetation & Ecosystems)
• Taskeko Mines Yellowhead Project – Wetland and Ecosystem-at Risk field surveys·
• Conuma Coal Resources – Wolverine Hermann environmental assessment (Vegetation & Ecosystems)
• Halfway River First Nation Traditional Plant Guidebook
• Regional Strategic environmental assessment
• Shackan Indian Band environmental policy review
• Skaha Hills environmental assessment and environmental management plan
• Fraser Lake environmental assessment and permitting for dam decommissioning
• Gopher Creek Linear Park (Kelowna) planning, environmental assessment and permitting
• The Bluffs at Skaha Phase 1 (Penticton) residential subdivision environmental assessment, permitting, and monitoring
• Trailhead at the Ponds (Kelowna) residential subdivision environmental assessment, permitting, and monitoring
• Cheam Landfill upgrade, monitoring and closure
• Barrick Gold Closure management manual development and updates
Land Development
Ecora’s team provides environmental support and documentation for land development permit applications, environmental management plan development (i.e. Construction Environmental Management Plans and Environmental Protection Plans), monitoring and restoration planning. This includes Erosion and Sediment Control plans, Environmental Monitoring plans and Spill Response plans, among other plans necessary to meet project requirements. Plans are tailored to project-specific requirements using a comprehensive working knowledge of regulations and BMPs. Ecora’s environmental team routinely completes applications and permitting under the Riparian Areas Protection Regulation (RAPR) and the Water Sustainability Act (WSA).
Contaminated Site Assessment and Remediation
Clean up and restoration of contaminated sites is an important part of what Ecora does. Ecora’s team takes pride in providing the most effective and efficient solutions to remediation and reclamation. Through thoughtful assessments and remediation plans, Ecora designs and implements solutions to protect human health and the environment, and satisfy all relevant regulatory requirements, whether set by the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, the BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, the Government of Canada or the self-governing First Nations that lie within it. Once the site is clean the team can help restore the land to achieve the end land-use and habitat objectives. Depending on the needs of the project the team can design simple plans to re-establish productive soil horizons and vegetative cover for erosion prevention or agricultural use or implement industry-leading approaches to jump-start the successional pathway using ecosystem-specific native grasses, shrubs and trees. Ecora has extensive experience in providing Stage 1 and 2 Preliminary Site Investigations, Detailed Site Investigations, Phase I/II/III Environmental Site Assessments, waste and landfill management and monitoring/remediation planning specific to hazardous materials and soil.
Project Support
Recognized as provincial experts in many core services areas, Ecora’s team has delivered hundreds of projects to Indigenous communities and to clients in government and across industrial sectors, including regional, provincial and federal government agencies, forestry, renewable energy, municipal land development, oil and gas, transportation and mining. Ecora aims to provide recommendations and innovative solutions that are consistent with applicable regulations and Best Management Practices (BMPs), thus ensuring projects are designed to achieve desired economic, environmental and scheduling outcomes. Working seamlessly with Ecora’s spatial data management experts, our core service areas are summarized below:
Collaboration with Indigenous Communities
Ecora successfully collaborates with dozens of Indigenous communities across BC, providing our complete range of professional services. This includes referrals coordination / management, representation on technical working groups and expert advice in the navigation of provincial and federal environmental policy with focus on the analysis of effects on traditional and cultural values. Our staff are experienced in the environmental and regulatory consultation framework, offering professional guidance for requirements under the BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO), the BC Oil and Gas Commission (BC OGC), the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) and the multitude of other relevant federal and provincial regulations. Additionally, Ecora regularly provides support in acquiring funds for capacity development and knowledge transition projects.
Ecological Landscape Inventory and Assessment
Ecora’s team provides ecosystem mapping, terrestrial and aquatic habitat assessments and mapping (including species and ecosystems at risk), fish/wildlife assessments, flood risk assessments and preparation of environmental baseline and effects assessments. These projects range in scope from small scale, residential assessments to large scale assessments for major industrial and resource development projects undergoing the provincial and/or federal environmental assessment process.
