Tansley Team, Inc.

Firm Description

Helm Biological Consulting (HBC) is a certified as a small business (SB [micro] 1184083) environmental consulting firm specializing in Biological Resource Studies, Mitigation Banking, Habitat Establishment, and Ecological Research (described further under Project Experience below).
 
Additional services include Environmental Compliance and Permit Assistance consisting ofSections 401 and 404 of the Clean Water Act, Section 1600 et. seq. of the California Department of Fish and Game Code, and consultation pursuant to Section 7 and Section 10 of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA Compliance), and preparation of CEQA / NEPA documents. HBC also offers special services including Global Positioning System (GPS) data collection and Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis and mapping.

HBC has provided their unique expertise and experience to private, non-profit, city, county, state, and federal entities consisting of more than 550 projects. These projects have ranged from residential and commercial development to the creation of mitigation banks with multiple-county service areas.

Firm Founder and History
 
Dr. Brent Helm is a wildlife biologist, botanist, and ecologist specializing in wetlands. He received a BS at Humboldt State University in Wildlife Management, emphasizing Botany, with a minor in Fisheries in 1988. His first consulting job occurred in the spring/summer of 1989 conducting rare plant surveys for EIP Associates on the Highway 65-Lincoln Bypass Project. The work intrigued Mr. Helm such that he sought and accepted employment at Jones and Stokes Associates (JSA – now known as ICF) in the fall of 1989. Always having a penchant for biological knowledge, Mr. Helm resumed his college studies at the University of California, Davis (UCD), while working nearly full time at JSA as the botanical and wetland functional group manager. Perhaps Mr. Helm’s most notable contribution to the JSA firm was his pioneering work with federal-listed large branchiopod (e.g., vernal pool tadpole shrimp and vernal pool fairy shrimp) life history, ecology, and occurrence mapping. Mr. Helm graduated UCD with a MS in Ecology in 1996. Mr. Helm left JSA in 1997 to pursue the challenges of a small startup biological consulting company (May Consulting Services [MCS] - now known as May & Associates, Inc.). During his time with MCS, Mr. Helm expanded the company’s qualifications and employees and completed a doctorate in Ecology in 1999 from UCD.
   
Shortly after his departure from MCS, Dr. Helm founded HBC in 2001. The firm prides itself on technical expertise and efficiency. It is not uncommon for HBC to inherit projects that other consultants were unable to complete. In response to the growing need to implement wetland restoration, enhancement and construction work, Dr. Helm received his State of California General Engineering Contractor A license in 2009 and founded his second company - Wetland Establishment Team (WET) the construction division, specializing in the development of wetlands.

In 2009, Dr. Helm incorporated the two companies HBC and WET, under the name Tansley Team, Inc. The firm was named in honor of Sir Arthur George Tansley – an English botanist and a pioneer in the science of ecology who introduced the concept of the “ecosystem” to biology. 

Depending on the project (biological consulting or wetland construction) Tansley Team, Inc. does business as (dba) Helm Biological Consulting (HBC) or Wetland Establishment Team (WET), respectively.