Qualifications
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| Virginia Susan Moran has been an environmental professional for 20 years. Her career started in 1984 when the Ohio Department of Transportation called the Botany Department in Athens, Ohio to inquire if there were any talented botanists available from the department to conduct surveys for a proposed road project. The department recommended a 24 year old botany student, Virginia, "who seemed to have a real capacity as a naturalist and botanist". This was Virginia's first official job as a professional biologist/botanist. |
| Virginia holds a B.S. in Field Biology (1983) and a M.S. in Botany (1986) from the Botany Department (now the Department of Environmental and Plant Biology) at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Her graduate work was an autecological study on the monotypic rare mint, Synandra hispidula. While attending graduate school, she worked part-time as an ecologist for the Ohio Department of Natural Resource in evaluating lands to be included in the Ohio Natural Preserves program. Following completion of her degree, she set out for "the west" where the ecology and land had beckoned to her since she was a young girl. |
| Virginia's experience includes a diverse array of research and environmental professional positions all over the United States. She worked as a naturalist for the Ohio Department of Parks and Recreation at the age of 20. After graduate school and once in San Diego County (1987), she assisted vernal pool research with Dr. Paul Zedler, formerly of San Diego State University and also worked as a research assistant at Toolik Lake, Alaska, also with SDSU. She has worked for The Nature Conservancy in Kentucky, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the National Park Service in Lakewood, Colorado, and in 1991, began a career as an Ecological Services biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Her primary responsibilities were to conduct Section 7 reviews under the Endangered Species Act, prepare listings, and review projects for general environmental impacts under NEPA and the Clean Water Act 404 programs. She then migrated "north to Alaska" where she worked for the USFWS in Anchorage, Alaska, also as an Ecological Services biologist. After five years with the USFWS in Anchorage, Virginia returned to San Diego County. After returning to San Diego County, she started her business, EOS, in 1999. Summers were spent in Northern California when her workload allowed for it. In October, 2003, tragedy hit Virginia when her home and office were destroyed in the fires that raged across San Diego County. She relocated to the Sierras to be in an area she has always loved. She continues to do field work in Southern California. |
| Virginia's experience is extensive and includes: preparing and reviewing NEPA and CEQA documents, conducting Section 7 consultations under the ESA, preparing listings under Section 6 of the ESA, assisting the USFWS 404 wetland program biologists during delineation's, writing and implementing Conservation Agreements for protection of rare plants, outlining and implementing mitigation and restoration plans, conducting rare plant and general plant surveys, conducting general biological surveys, acting as a tortoise monitor, conducting protocol level surveys for the Quino checkerspot butterfly (Permit # TE 036809-0), writing and supervising field work and field work contracts (including coordination of helicopters in Alaska), work as a utility forester, native plant gardening, designing and implementing numerous interpretation and education classes for all ages. |
| Virginia has received awards throughout her career including the Outstanding Stewardship Award from the Anchorage Waterways Council in 1997 for initiating a Native Plant Salvaging Program in the City of Anchorage. She has also received numerous performance awards from the USFWS, one for completely initiating and coordinating a "Celebrating (Native) Wildflowers" event in Anchorage, Alaska which has since become a tradition every spring in this city. She has published numerous freelance articles and other articles including an editorial on sustainability in Ecological Applications in 1994, 4 (3) in addition to other publications such as the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Endangered Species booklet (1996). |
| Some of her current and former clients include The Nature Conservancy, The Center for Natural Lands Management, Camp Stevens of Julian, California, The Sierra Club, Sempra Energy, USFS-Cleveland National Forest, Bell Gardens, KQ Resort, as well as many other clients. |
| Virginia Moran is a county approved consultant in Nevada and San Diego Counties in California. She obtains approval or permits for other geographic areas as needed per the project. She also holds current plant collecting permits from the State of California Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. |
Virginia Moran
P O Box 2858
Grass Valley CA 95945
(530) 272-7132
