Duo Provides Affordable Environmental Advice

 

 

Consulting firm in Driggs will help with development applications

 

Jackson Hole News, August 19, 1998
By Johanna Love

 

After finishing graduate school last May, Katie Morey and Jeff Klausmann wanted to work with wetlands and streams, repairing valuable trout and waterfowl habitat.

 

Seeing an opportunity in the Teton County environmental consulting market, the pair decided to open Intermountain Aquatics. Although their office is in Driggs, Morey and Klausmann work in Jackson and all across the Rocky Mountains.

 

Morey specializes in stream restoration, while Klausmann concentrates on wetlands. They offer complete aquatic assessment, revegetation and restoration work for all aquatic habitats.

 

One niche the two hope to fill is providing affordable environmental assessments.

 

If a landowner wants to build in Teton County, he or she must pay an environmental consulting firm to analyze the land, Morey said.

"There have been a lot of complaints to the county about the $2000-$5000 environmental assessment fees," Morey said. "We're trying to come in under that, charging from $300 to $1500."

 

Morey said IMA's prices are affordable for two reasons.

"We realize we're fresh out of graduate school and can't charge what others do, but we don't want to charge people an arm and a leg," she said. "We don't want someone to not do a project because they can't afford the typical consulting fees."

 

The pair are working with several nonprofit organizations in Jackson.

Morey, a Jackson native, attended many Teton Science School classes as a child. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in environmental, population and organismic biology from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Her master's degree is in rangeland ecology and watershed management from the University of Wyoming.

 

 

They offer complete aquatic assessment, revegetation and restoration work for all aquatic habitats.

 

Klausmann spent a semester in the National Outdoor Leadership School before graduating from the University of Vermont-Burlington with a bachelor's degree in wildlife biology. He received a master's degree in land rehabilitation from Montana State University in Bozeman.

IMA is located at 85 S Main in Driggs, Idaho. The company can be reached at (208)354-3690.