An environmental scientist and coastal restoration project manager at WSP, Will is dedicated to finding and implementing innovative nature-based solutions that safeguard the aquatic environment while bolstering the well-being and economic vibrancy of local communities.
Describe the responsibilities of your position and describe your background/experience?
I am a project manager for the coastal restoration group in the Tallahassee, Florida office. One of the best parts of my position is going to the coast frequently for construction oversight on our living shoreline projects. I help complete monitoring and conduct seagrass and oyster surveys, which is unique and enjoyable.
My first experience in consulting was in Carlsbad, New Mexico, working on oil and gas remediation projects within the Permian Basin, New Mexico and the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Colorado. When my legacy firm was acquired by WSP, I saw that there was a lot of opportunity within a larger firm. I transferred to Tallahassee to expand my professional experience and better align with my educational background to help with the living shoreline projects. I grew up on the Gulf coast, so I'm very familiar with oyster beds, seagrass and salt marsh.
What inspires or motivates you in your career?
I really love challenging projects. You need to put a lot of mental focus into it, and I find it very rewarding to figure things out. We have a lot of challenging living shoreline efforts. It is a bit daunting at first to think about varying conditions in dynamic, nearshore environments, all the permit conditions, the designs and all the things you have to factor in to get to the desired result, but we have a very strong team here that's become excellent at designing nature-based solutions. I'd even argue that we are best on the Gulf Coast!
Experiencing these projects firsthand and working with a talented team of engineers, ecologists and construction specialists to develop solutions to really complex projects is my favorite part.
What is the biggest challenge in your field that you’re working to help resolve?
With coastal resilience projects, a challenge is getting stakeholder buy-in. People owning property along a vulnerable coastline have riparian rights, so they need to sign permits agreeing to be involved with the project.
One thing that the WSP team has done to increase stakeholder consensus was introduce phasing. We start with a section that is state forest, or publicly owned land since agencies are familiar with the living shorelines concept. We start building the living shorelines and show the landowners what we’d like to build in front of their property. Once they see it, people often say “absolutely.”
Working around seagrass is also a challenge. We document it regularly, so it is not damaged during construction, but these habitats are very dynamic. We develop reef placement plans from mapping seagrass in the area and review before construction starts, adjusting the reefs as needed. One benefit of the surveys is that our reef designs mirror the seagrass beds giving them an interesting irregular shape that looks more natural and blend into the surrounding environment. It's fun working with the seagrass.
