Projects
Biological Surveys + Research
Wilder staff and associates are career field biologists and have contributed to effective studies throughout the US Southwest and US west coast from Mexico to Alaska.
Each research project has unique technical complexities, but many survey protocols and sampling techniques used in the environmental consulting industry have been standardized through collaboration and professional consensus among scientists and biologists working in the private sector, research universities, non-profits and government conservation organizations. Our personnel come to the job with years of experience in agency protocol surveys for sensitive or listed species.
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![A person kneeling on a dry grassy landscape taking a photo or recording with a handheld device of a turtle on the ground.]()
USGS, USFWS, Clark County (NV) Desert Tortoise Monitoring
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![Person wearing a helmet and red jacket holding a radio-controlled drone with a remote controller in a desert landscape with mountains in the background.]()
Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Lands Expansion + Translocation
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![Sign for Pioneertown Motel hanging from a metal arm, surrounded by trees and gravel ground, with additional signs indicating office and motel guest parking with no exit, in a desert landscape with hills in the background.]()
Pioneertown Motel Improvements
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![A bird's nest built among dry twigs and branches containing several speckled eggs.]()
Bellefield I&II Solar Project
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![Tree with thick, textured bark and sharp, spiky green leaves against a clear blue sky, with a white pole in front of it in a desert landscape.]()
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation - Common Raven Mitigation Studies
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![A person lying on the ground in a rocky, desert-like terrain, reaching out to touch a large boulder.]()
Eldorado-Ivanpah Transmission Project
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![A group of people dressed for hiking in a desert landscape with sparse bushes and mountains in the background. Some are adjusting gear or looking at devices, wearing hats, sunglasses, and bright safety vests.]()
AT&T Fiber Line Slash X
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![Person in a wide-brimmed hat and long-sleeved shirt kneels on an orange pad, pulling a vine in a desert landscape with dry shrubs and bushes, using a tool connected to a black box on the ground.]()
Desert Breeze Solar Project
Permit Compliance Biological Assessments, Mitigation Plans, Reporting
During 20+ years of work on multiple large projects in the US desert southwest, Wilder leadership has coordinated directly with USFWS, BLM, and Department of Defense environmental staff to develop mitigation plans, implement specific protocol surveys, perform biological assessments, and keep documentation aligned with agency expectations and timelines. Many thousands of miles of utility lines cross federal land through the US Southwest, and Wilder has supplied expertise for compliance with federal laws on dozens of jobs across hundreds of miles of electrical, gas, and fiber optic lines. Many commercial utility and infrastructure projects have a state regulatory nexus, and benefit from the decades of experience accessed through Wilder management and associates.
In addition, Wilder prepares the biological resource documentation that lead agencies require for CEQA compliance on projects going through county or city discretionary review, for example in obtaining conditional use permits and capital improvement approvals. We work directly with applicants, planners, and their consultant teams to keep biological findings from becoming a bottleneck in the entitlement process. Our team has provided CEQA-compliant Biological Assessments, species surveys, and CDFW permitting support for more than a dozen small and mid-scale capital improvement projects across the California high desert including private residential property improvement, hospitality and lodging expansions, event venue permitting, and rural commercial development. We are often sub-contracted as subject matter experts for specific reporting products.
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![A vast desert landscape with a geothermal or solar farm containing numerous large, dark solar panels arranged in rows, with mountains in the background under a clear blue sky.]()
Desert Breeze Solar Project
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![The image shows a desert landscape with a large, knobby tree in the foreground, dry grass and small bushes around it, and hills in the background under a clear sky. Overlaid text provides details such as date, time, geographic coordinates, altitude, azimuth, elevation, and other technical data.]()
Pioneertown Motel Expansion
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![Large satellite dish in a desert landscape with rock formations, under a sky with scattered clouds during sunset.]()
NASA JPL Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex
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![A tortoise walking on a dry, barren desert landscape with scattered dried shrubs and a small pile of dead twigs.]()
Bellefield I&II Solar Project
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![A warning sign in a desert area warning of danger from a bombing range, with active shooting days noted as 7 days a week, written in both English and Spanish, surrounded by dry bushes and barbed wire.]()
Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Range 01 MEC Removal
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![Map showing four designated sites and a pipeline route passing through Sanborn and other areas.]()
Enterprise Sanborn Solar Project
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![Construction workers and equipment installing fencing along a dirt road in a desert landscape, with temporary water pipes visible on the ground and mountains in the distance.]()
Aratina I&II Solar Project
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![A large array of solar panels installed in a barren, dried grassy field with mountains in the background under a clear blue sky.]()
Eland I&II Solar Project
Construction Monitoring
Wilder provides seasoned field staff with region-specific skills, and the management expertise to marshal personnel and ensure quality data collection at each stage of a project. Our biologists and monitors are distinguished by their experience in a diversity of work environments on heavy construction sites. We are often sub-contracted to provide field biologists and monitors with subject matter expertise to support larger environmental consulting, architecture and engineering firms that lack the specific in-house experience for a region or species. Our field personnel are routinely authorized by state and federal resource management agencies to perform specialized mitigation actions (protocol surveys, handling, samples collection, relocations) for sensitive and listed species.
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![Construction vehicles working on a dirt road in a desert landscape with mountains and power lines in the background.]()
AT&T Fiber Line Slash X
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![Reflection of electricity pylons on a body of water with a mountainous landscape in the background under a partly cloudy sky.]()
One ON Line Transmission
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![A wind turbine under construction in a mountainous area with construction vehicles and a speed limit sign that says 15 miles per hour.]()
Alta Mesa Wind Repower Project
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![Construction site with a large yellow Caterpillar excavator and a smaller bulldozer working on a dirt road in a hilly, desert landscape under a partly cloudy sky.]()
SoCal Gas Pipelines
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![Solar panels installed in a desert landscape under a clear blue sky.]()
Enterprise Sanborn Solar Project
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![A crane lifting a utility pole in a desert area with mountains in the background, with workers present.]()
Athos I&II Solar Project
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![A helicopter flying near a tall electrical pylon with power lines, with a worker on a lift working on the pylon.]()
Eldorado Ivanpah Transmission Line
Specialized Mitigation for Listed Species
Resource agencies at the state and federal level review the skills, experience, and qualifications of each individual biologist prior to authorizing activities that would constitute a “take” of a sensitive species, as defined in state and federal endangered species law. Such activities include manipulating, capturing, handling, tagging, and tissue sampling among other actions.
Wilder often provides skilled and authorized biologists as a sub-contractor on large, complex infrastructure projects. Our personnel are routinely approved as agency Authorized or Designated Biologists for region-specific sensitive species, and have served in leadership roles for agency protocol surveys, data management, report preparation and compliance monitoring.
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![A person wearing a wide-brimmed hat, plaid shirt, and beige scarf is examining and tending to a baby turtle on a rocky outdoor terrain. Another person in blue gloves is holding the turtle, which appears to be injured or in need of assistance.]()
Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Land Expansion + Translocation
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![Scientists in protective gear and hats working outdoors, handling a small animal, possibly a reptile, with lab equipment, in a sandy area with various supplies and equipment in the background.]()
Desert Breeze Solar Project
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![Two workers in a desert landscape installing or inspecting a black pipeline that runs through a trench, with tools and equipment nearby.]()
Athos I&II Solar Project
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![Construction workers planting a Joshua tree in a desert landscape with wind turbines and mountains in the background.]()
Enterprise Sanborn Solar Project
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![A bird's nest with five blue eggs situated among rocks and twigs in a dry, rocky terrain with sparse green vegetation in the background.]()
NFWF Common Raven Mitigation Studies
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![Two women in outdoor clothing and gloves handling a turtle on the ground in a sunny, natural environment.]()
Fort Irwin NTC Translocation
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![A wild coyote standing on a dirt path at night, surrounded by bushes and trees, with a faint fog or mist in the background.]()
Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Station
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![Large wind turbine on a dirt road with construction equipment and a speed limit sign that says 15, in a hilly, semi-arid landscape with a partly cloudy sky.]()
Alta Mesa Wind Repower Project
Biological Resources Support for Federal Lands Management + Department of Defense Infrastructure
Wilder staff and their associates have extensive experience working deep in the backcountry ranges of desert military installations, spanning over 2,000 square miles of extremely remote terrain.
Our field leadership has been instrumental in facilitating biological resource compliance on several large military lands management actions, including the largest desert tortoise translocation ever completed (more than 1,200 tortoises moved), and a comprehensive upgrade of the Fort Irwin NTC communications tower infrastructure across all ranges (20 sites across approximately 1,000 square miles). In addition, Wilder has completed NEPA-compliant biological surveys and general assessments, provided permit compliance reporting, and sensitive species mitigation plans for installation infrastructure projects.
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![Large radio telescope dish in a desert landscape with rock formations, under a partly cloudy sky at sunset.]()
NASA JPL Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex
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![A person wearing a hat and red jacket aiming a telescope or binoculars at a vast desert landscape with sparse vegetation, mountains in the distance, and clear blue sky.]()
Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Land Expansion + Translocation
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![Construction site with large trucks, excavators, and workers wearing safety gear in a desert landscape.]()
Fort Irwin NTC Instrumentation Systems Modernization Project
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![Construction workers operating a small excavator in a desert landscape. One worker is in the excavator's cab, another standing outside wearing a yellow safety vest and white hard hat. The background features sparse shrubbery and distant mountains under a clear blue sky.]()
Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Range 01 MEC Removal
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![A person wearing a wide-brimmed hat and outdoor clothing standing on rocky terrain in a desert landscape with mountains in the background during sunset.]()
Fort Irwin NTC Southern Expansion + Translocation
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![A person wearing a blue glove holding a small turtle, showing its head and front legs, with a blurred outdoor background.]()
Fort Irwin NTC Range 1 UXO Removal
Permitting Support for Private Residential + Small Business
Local and state environmental regulation can influence even small capital improvement projects. For example, recently, communities in the California High Desert have encountered a new state permitting and conservation framework for the western Joshua tree. This iconic species evokes the mystique and lonesome character of wide desert vistas, and it occurs in substantial numbers on thousands of private parcels throughout the western Mojave desert. The western Joshua tree plays important roles in healthy desert ecosystem function, but is now a regulatory factor that must be accounted for in development plans for parcels located in the west Mojave region.
Wilder has years of experience conducting western Joshua tree assessments prior to the uplisting, and has continued to provide professional surveys in accordance with the new CDFW protocol Western Joshua Tree Census techniques required in successful permitting applications.
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![A desert landscape with a Joshua tree in the foreground, hills and scattered trees in the background, and a house with a metal roof visible near the base of the hills, under a clear sky with some clouds.]()
Pioneertown Motel Improvements
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![Desert landscape with Joshua trees, residential houses, and mountain range in the distance under a clear blue sky.]()
Private Residential Western Joshua Tree Census
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![A dry, desert landscape with sparse shrubs and bushes. In the background, there are parked cars and a fence, indicating a near by parking lot. The ground is sandy and arid.]()
SBC Solar Project
