AQUATIC RESOURCES MANAGEMENT - Key Persons


Brad Evans

Job Titles:
  • Technician
  • Environmental Technician
Mr. Evans serves as a laboratory technician and field collection specialist at ARM. Brad is intimately involved with technical day to day laboratory duties that help make our analytical process efficient and accurate.

James Ramsey

Job Titles:
  • Limnologist and Laboratory Manager
Mr. Ramsey has a mixture of duties here at ARM. James is primarily responsible for the direct oversight of the analytical laboratory while at the same time he functions as our most experienced limnologist and benthic taxonomists.

Jamie Pope

Job Titles:
  • Wastewater Laboratory QA / QC Manager

Jason Butler

Jason is experienced at a myriad of aquatic sampling techniques and stream ecological methodologies including macroinvertebrate, fish, amphibian, and reptile surveys. He continues to increase his knowledge in taxonomy, especially in Kentucky and southeastern North America. Jason has experience with section 404 of the Clean Water Act and 402 Kentucky Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting processes. He has performed in-depth GIS analyses including landscape-level phylogeography and distribution modeling and remote delineation of aquatic resources. He has over five years of experience in the collection and preservation of genetic materials and curation of biological specimens. Jason has conducted large-scale, aquatic mark-recapture studies and installed, maintained and operated in-stream passive integrated transponder systems. Jason authors peer-reviewed, scientific manuscripts annually and presents at international and regional scientific symposiums. He is experienced in grant writing and has received multiple grants, scholarships and other scientific awards. Currently, Jason is examining affects of watershed disturbance on aquatic functionality and ecosystem assemblages through GIS and mutlimetric procedures. He is incorporating land use, water quality parameters and macroinvertebrate data to explain and predict ecological changes in stream systems. Jason also serves an integral role insuring USACE 404 and KPDES 402 accuracy and efficiency.

Josh Howard - President

Job Titles:
  • President
Mr. Howard's primary duties are to oversee development of the United States Army Corps of Engineers 404 permitting process, 401 Kentucky Water Quality Certification (WQC), and the 402 Kentucky Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (KPDES) permits. His daily duties entail overseeing all aspects of the permitting process. He stays highly involved in each detail of each project to ensure his experience reflects in each step. His experience is vast regarding aquatic biology and restoration covering many areas of environmental biology. Mr. Howard has more than eight (8) years of experience in the environmental field. During this time, he has conducted environmental assessments on many different types of projects including private development, residential development, hard rock mining, coal mining, and logging. Within these projects the following types of assessments or analysis have been conducted:

Kelli R. Smith - CMO

Job Titles:
  • Director of Marketing
  • Executive Assistant

Lee Moser

Job Titles:
  • Senior Environmental Scientist
Lee has previously participated in a variety of environmental projects, resulting in experience in wetland restoration ecology, plant taxonomy, hydrology, fish monitoring, and ArcGIS processing and mapping. Through his experience with stream assessments, Lee has become pivotal in ARM stream delineations and functional assessments. He is also one of the primary ArcGIS technicians facilitating expedient transfer of field-collected data at Aquatic Resources.

Nick Baker - VP

Job Titles:
  • Vice President
Nick is experienced in stream restoration, construction, and design implementation. He possesses expertise in geomorphology of streams and extrapolation and prediction of hydrologic characteristics, such as providing hydraulic geometry relationships, describing basin character and discharge relationships, and providing stream channel morphology as a prediction. He also has experience in prediction of sedimentation from hydrologic characteristics such as providing sediment rating curves, providing analysis prediction of sedimentation, and preparing and submitting construction plans and natural design methodology for stream restoration projects.

Rebecca Ramsey

Job Titles:
  • Environmental Scientist
Rebecca's interests have always involved the environment particularly its aquatic regions and inhabitants. Her experience has had her working in a wide variety of systems including but not limited to streams, rivers, lakes, and coastal brackish wetlands. These systems encouraged the progression of her expertise in macroinvertebrate identification, ichthyology, wetland vegetation identification, limnology, biogeochemistry, and the hydrology of watersheds. Her expertise opened doors to many opportunities to present her research at multiple international and regional scientific conferences resulting in awards for her skilled presentations. Her knowledge in grant writing resulted in many scholarships and fellowships used for her work in the environment. Rebecca's primary responsibilities at Aquatic Resources have her involved with benthic macroinvertebrate identifications, and water quality analysis as related to section 402 & 404 permitting under the Clean Water Act. She is also intimately involved with detailed 402 permit auditing as related to Section 402 Clean Water Act.

Shane Tonning

Job Titles:
  • Environmental Scientist
Shane has extensive experience in macroinvertebrate identification and habitat assessment as well as with KDOW standard operating procedure and EPA assessment protocols. He participated in the federal 2009 National Rivers and Streams Assessment and 2010 National Coastal Condition Assessment and is a certified PADI Open Water diver. Interests include aquatic entomology, botany, and incorporating technology into hydrologic and biological analysis. At Aquatic Resources, Shane is responsible for determining United States Army Core of Engineers' jurisdiction of streams for 404 permits using federal guidances, sampling macroinvertebrates for 402 permits using Kentucky Division of Water protocols. He also assesses Functional Capacity Indices according to USACE protocol, and is proficient in mapping and exhibiting data using GIS software.