Orbis Environmental Consulting

Orbis Environmental Consulting Over 70 years of combined experience in cultural and natural resource management. Surveys:

Desktop Review - Provides basic ecological information on species.

Our experts in biology, ecology, native plants, history, and archaeology can help you with your project. Services:
Cultural Resource Management-

We can help you identify places with significant historic or cultural meaning. Whether archaeological sites, historic structures, or culturally important natural resources, we can help you identify the risks to these resources and help manage any potenti

al impacts. Our Cultural Resource specialists can help you manage the risk of impacting important historic or archaeological places. We can help you comply with the National Historic Preservation Act, NEPA, and other cultural regulations. Our services include:

Background Research
Phase I Cultural Resource Inventory
Phase II Cultural Resource Assessment
Phase III Cultural Resource Data Recovery and Mitigation
Agency Coordination
Public Outreach and Education
Preservation Planning

Ecological Surveys, Assessment and Planning –

We can provide you with the meaningful and accurate information you need to manage aquatic and terrestrial biological resources to comply with environmental regulations. Our experts also offer customized workshops allowing you to provide the stewardship that is essential to manage sensitive resources. Our services include:

Aquatic Plant Surveys and Sampling
Biological Assessment
Botanical Inventories and Floristic Quality Assessment
Ecological Restoration Planning
Endangered Species Surveys
Habitat Assessment
Invasive Species Surveys
Plant Community Mapping and Quality Assessment
Tree Surveys
Wetland Determination and Delineation
Natural Area Management Plans

Wildlife Survey Planning and Management-

Our wildlife biologists can help you identify and manage for wildlife, including rare, threatened, and endangered species. We perform habitat assessments, natural resource damage assessments and develop wildlife management plans to comply with federal, state, and local regulations. We can conduct surveys for a variety of species: amphibians, mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and terrestrial insects across a range of habitats. Habitat Assessments - Provides detailed habitat information based on site conditions. Presence/Absence Surveys - Requires on site surveys that attempt to determine if a species is present within a project area. Our Senior wildlife biologist is federally permitted to conduct Indiana bat, grey bat, Virginia big-eared bat, and northern long-eared bat surveys. In addition to identifying endangered species, we perform proactive services to help you reduce risk including Wildlife Hazard Assessments, Wildlife Hazard Management Plans, and Wildlife Control Plans. Wildlife Control Plan
A wildlife control plan will reduce nuisance wildlife by using adaptive management to insure a safe working environment for personnel, equipment, and clients. Wildlife Hazard Assessments
Our certified airport biologist will provide the expertise needed to complete a Wildlife Hazard Assessment for airports. Wildlife Hazard Management Plans
Our certified airport biologist can write or assist with a Wildlife Hazard Management Plan required by the FAA for airports that have wildlife issues. Training and Workshops

Our experts can provide the training you need to manage sensitive natural and cultural resources. We offer training in plant identification and inventory, wetland delineation, approaches to restoration and mitigation, wildlife management, and archaeology. Whether your staff needs specific technical training or you need to understand how environmental regulations might affect you, our recognized experts can help. Need specific ecological or cultural resource training for your staff? We can design customized workshops ranging from an afternoon refresher to week long seminars. Customized Plant Workshops

Our botanist leads specialized workshops on difficult plant families and genera to provide you or your staff with the information they need to better understand how to identify the taxa within the subject group. Plant Identification Training

Our botanist conducts plant identification training courses for regulators, consultants, land trusts, naturalists, park staff, and others to provide valuable insight on species identification. Training sessions can focus on a specific group of plants or can be more broad and cover a wider range of the flora. Wildlife control workshops

Our certified airport biologist provides training for airport personnel in a variety of wildlife control techniques and how to manage wildlife attractants. Wildlife/Habitat Management Workshops
Our team of biologists provides the best management practices for specific species or practical application for landscape level management for a variety of species. Cultural Resource Management/Archaeology Workshops
Our Registered Professional Archaeologist can provide presentations on regional archaeology, history, and other customized topics. We can also provide best practices for compliance with State and Federal Cultural Resource regulations. Regulatory Compliance

Clean Water Act
Endangered Species Act
National Environmental Policy Act

Happy bat appreciation day!Orbis attended the virtual Midwest Bat Working Group Meeting Wednesday and Thursday of this w...
04/17/2026

Happy bat appreciation day!

Orbis attended the virtual Midwest Bat Working Group Meeting Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Here’s some positive bat news we have learned:

The White-nose Syndrome vaccine reduces infection from the disease by 30%!

USFWS is looking to delist the gray bat (Myotis grisescens) potentially as soon as 2028. The species has met all of the recovery plan requirements and 100% of their major hibernacula are protected.

Indiana bat populations (Myotis sodalis, pictured here) are continuing to recover and the estimated population size is around 600,000 bats.

Little brown bat populations (Myotis lucifugus), are also continuing to recover and many large hibernaculum in Indiana and Missouri are seeing population increases.

Please join us in welcoming Tessa Aby-Kruger to Orbis. Tessa is a geologist, botanist, and vegetation ecologist with 10 ...
03/17/2026

Please join us in welcoming Tessa Aby-Kruger to Orbis. Tessa is a geologist, botanist, and vegetation ecologist with 10 years of experience managing and conducting projects, specializing in ecological and floristic inventories, rare plant surveys, and vegetation monitoring. She also performs wetland evaluations and is a guided hike leader.

Join Orbis in celebrating Bat Week! Orbis bat biologists have been working with bats for most of their careers. We want ...
10/24/2025

Join Orbis in celebrating Bat Week! Orbis bat biologists have been working with bats for most of their careers. We want everyone to learn about these amazing animals!

https://batweek.org/

Bat Week is an international, annual celebration designed to raise awareness about the need for bat conservation. Bats are amazing creatures that are vital to the health of our natural world and economy. Although we may not always see them, bats are hard at work all around the world each night - eating tons of insects, pollinating flowers, and spreading seeds that grow new plants and trees.

(Photos by Megan Martin and Jeremy Sheets)

Orbis enjoyed presenting a bat mist-netting demonstration at the Stewardship Gathering with ILPA! We caught two southern...
10/06/2025

Orbis enjoyed presenting a bat mist-netting demonstration at the Stewardship Gathering with ILPA! We caught two southern flying squirrels, a gray catbird, and a male, adult big brown bat (please click through the pictures for the bat). Big brown bats are a common species, encountered by most people when they have bats in buildings. They are one of our larger bat species and eat lots of beetles.

Orbis had the wonderful opportunity to attended and present at the ILPA Stewardship Gathering this year. We had a great ...
09/29/2025

Orbis had the wonderful opportunity to attended and present at the ILPA Stewardship Gathering this year. We had a great time learning about unique and special areas around Northwest Indiana. Thanks to all the participants and supporters of an amazing community. More photos are to come of our bat presentation and other events.

We can't wait to post more about the enriching week we've had together with Indiana land trust stewards.

In the meantime, we are eager to express our gratitude towards the many people and organizations who made this year's Stewardship Gathering a success, including our host partners: Shirley Heinze Land Trust and Indiana Dunes State Park, presenters from Orbis Environmental Consulting, Midwest Biological Survey, LLC., Indiana Department of Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy, Indiana Prescribed Fire Council, and Indiana Dunes. We're also immensely appreciative of the special support we received from the Roy Whistler Foundation for making this important event possible. Thank you to Michael Gard Photography for volunteering your time and talent to capture our activities the past 3 days!

ACRES Land Trust, The Archaeological Research Institute - ARI, Inc, Black Swamp Conservancy, Blue Heron Ministries, A Land Trust, Buffalo Trace Land Trust, Central Indiana Land Trust, Clear Lake Township Land Conservancy, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Friends of Kankakee, Indiana Karst Conservancy, Little River Wetlands Project, Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center, NICHES Land Trust, Red-tail Land Conservancy, Shirley Heinze Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy in Indiana, thanks for your hard work and dedication caring for Indiana's most special places.

Orbis Senior Wildlife Biologist Jeremy Sheets and Biologist Aimee Bjornstad have been spending their time giving bat tal...
09/19/2025

Orbis Senior Wildlife Biologist Jeremy Sheets and Biologist Aimee Bjornstad have been spending their time giving bat talks - two annual bat talks over the past three weeks.

September 4th - the St. Joseph County Parks hosted their annual Bag-a-Bat & Banana Splits event at St. Patrick’s Park. Jeremy gave a presentation about bats of Indiana (and a bit about bats around the world) and then ice-cream was served with toppings made possible by bats. The night’s activities culminated with watching bats emerge from a barn and capturing them in mist-nets. Aimee demonstrated the morphometric data we collect when conducting bat surveys.

September 18th - Jeremy and Aimee were invited back to St. Patrick’s Park as part of a mammal-focused night for the Indiana Master Naturalist Program, lead my Michaele Klingerman. After mammal presentations, the group had hands-on pelt and skull quizzes. Then attendees watched bats emerge from the barn. Bats were captured in mist-nets and Aimee showed the attendees how to collect morphometric data.

(Picture credit: Michaele Klingerman and Jeremy Sheets)

Clinton County ArchaeologyThursday, September 18th, 5pmOrbis has partnered with the University of Indianapolis to conduc...
09/18/2025

Clinton County Archaeology
Thursday, September 18th, 5pm

Orbis has partnered with the University of Indianapolis to conduct an archaeological survey of Clinton County, Indiana. We want to invite the public to learn about the findings of Dr. Elizabeth Straub and Dr. Christopher Moore. The two will facilitate a presentation open to the public and will also bring along artifacts.

Please join us:

Clinton County Historical Society & Museum
(Old Stoney)
301 East Clinton Street
Frankfort, Indiana 46041
Telephone: (765) 659-2030
Thursday, September 18th, 2025 at 5:00 pm

Orbis bat biologist Jeremy Sheets and Megan Martin attended the 17th Midwest Bat Working Group (MWBWG) conference at Pur...
04/07/2025

Orbis bat biologist Jeremy Sheets and Megan Martin attended the 17th Midwest Bat Working Group (MWBWG) conference at Purdue Fort Wayne. This year, both Jeremy and Megan were elected to the MWBWG board.
Jeremy presented a poster on a long-term acoustic monitoring of a CRP program which planted trees to provide habitat for the federally endangered Indiana bat.
In good bat news, we learned the federal gray bat may be delisted in the future because all recovery plan objectives have been met, including protection of almost all caves known to be used by the species.

Congratulations to J Ryan Duddleson and the team at Ecosystems Connections Institute, LLC, James Heimlich and Jerry Swee...
03/18/2025

Congratulations to J Ryan Duddleson and the team at Ecosystems Connections Institute, LLC, James Heimlich and Jerry Sweeten for receiving the Indiana Archaeology Award for their work to archaeologically document low head dams across the state.

Join Orbis in celebrating World Wildlife Day! We love all wildlife and we work with many types in the Midwest (we may ha...
03/03/2025

Join Orbis in celebrating World Wildlife Day! We love all wildlife and we work with many types in the Midwest (we may have a few favorites). We believe it is critical to invest in people and wildlife to maintain our environment.

Address

South Bend, IN

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