Our Staff

Joseph D. Urbani
President
Fisheries Biologist
Joseph Urbani, the company's principal, is a professional fisheries biologist with over 31 years of experience designing and implementing fish habitat improvement and water resource restoration projects in the public and private sectors. He has been heavily involved in spring creek and freestone stream construction and restoration projects since 1983. Joe specializes in the successful enhancement of streams and rivers, incorporating bed manipulation techniques that consistently yield high quality fisheries. Over the past 20 years, Joe has been involved in the construction and restoration of lakes and ponds, creating his own standards for construction based on the objective of creating biologically productive aquatic habitat systems. His extensive experience includes work with other fishery consultants and positions with the U.S. Forest Service and state fish and wildlife agencies in New Jersey, Colorado, Washington, Montana, and Alaska. Although skilled in fishery evaluations, his current focus concerns property management for optimal fish and wildlife habitat, and coordinating habitat improvement efforts among state and federal agencies, and professional and community groups. Joe has given presentations at numerous professional workshops and symposiums (i.e. the 13th International Salmonid Habitat Enhancement Workshop). Joseph Urbani holds a bachelor's degree in Fisheries Biology from Colorado State University and is a member of the American Fisheries Society and Trout Unlimited.

G. Lance Bigelow
Agronomist
Lance Bigelow received a B.S. in Agronomy-Plant Protection Option from Montana State University, Bozeman. He has worked in the natural resource and fisheries fields for the past 10 years, and has extensive experience in the implementation of range and stream bank enhancement techniques including stabilization, reconstruction, and revegetation. While working with the USDA/ARS/Rangeland Weeds Laboratory and the MSU Biological Control Department, Lance gained valuable experience in identification of common and exotic plant species and possible biological control agents for the target plant species. Presently, project responsibilities include compilation of detailed preconstruction plant and insect inventories, design and implementation of stream bank reconstruction, slope stabilization techniques, and rehabilitation of sites degraded by historic land use practices. Specific revegetation and stabilization techniques include terraced bank construction, implementation of biodegradable materials (coir fabrics), introduction of woody debris for bank stabilization and creation of invertebrate and fish habitat, introduction of native vegetation to increase ecosystem diversity, placement of rock barbs and boulders, application of hydraulic mulches, and irrigation of manipulated areas.

Case Brown
Project Manager
Case Brown graduated from Montana State University with a degree in Land Resources Environmental Sciences from the College of Agriculture with an emphasis on soil and water sciences. This degree was well rounded, with upper division courses in soil and water physics, surface and groundwater modeling, lake and stream entomology and wetland delineation and classification. Mr. Brown joined Joseph Urbani & Associates, Inc. in 2003 as a Project Manager. He has perfected and standardized the infrastructure of our pond recirculation stream systems. He has executed all aspects of pond and stream projects throughout Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New York and Connecticut. Including stream bed manipulation and stabilization structures, new spring creek channels construction with agricultural field drains, and extensive wetland creation in lined ponds.

Eric Werhand
Senior Technician
Eric Werhand holds a B.S. Fish and Wildlife from the Montana State University. His areas of expertise include aquatic habitat enhancement and design, pond and stream construction and restoration, and wetland ecology. Eric has acquired extensive experience in project management and oversight while implementing projects throughout the intermountain west and along the east coast.

Antoinette Anthony
Project Coordinator
Environmental Scientist
Antoinette Anthony holds a B.S. in Environmental Biology with a minor in Soil Science, as well as a M.S. in Land Resources and Environmental Sciences from Montana State University at Bozeman. For her thesis, she conducted an analysis of the efficacy of implementing bio-control methods on Dalmatian toadflax, an invasive plant, established in areas disturbed by wildfire located within the Ponderosa pine habitat areas of southwest Montana. Prior to graduate school, Antoinette was employed as a research assistant and maintained the invasive plant greenhouse for MSU. Her areas of expertise include restoration of disturbed lands; control of invasive species, and the regeneration of native species. Throughout her career, Antoinette has been very involved with native plant restoration and community outreach on the Big Island of Hawaii, as a volunteer as well as a state employee who conducted research for a 100,000 acre habitat conservation project of the Pu'u Wa'a Wa'a Ranch, Hawaii. Presently, Antoinette is responsible for project coordination, permit applications, designing and implementing agency required monitoring of project sites, maintaining records for fish pond licenses, coordinating fish plants and wetland plantings, and office administration.

Stephanie McGinnis
Aquatic Ecologist
Stephanie received a B.A. in both Biology and Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado and her M.S. in Biological Sciences from Montana State University at Bozeman. For her thesis, she conducted a large-scale spatial and temporal analysis of stream and watershed characteristics that influence the prevalence and severity of whirling disease in western Montana. Her professional interests are focused on the conservation and restoration of freshwater ecosystems. Her areas of expertise include the use of aquatic invertebrates to assess the integrity of freshwater systems and the use of GIS to model surface water and the surrounding landscape at the riparian and watershed level. She has presented her work at national and international conferences and is currently preparing her research findings for publication in scientific journals. Throughout her career, Stephanie has also been heavily involved in environmental education and outreach, working for public schools, state and federal agencies, and most recently at MSU an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Ecology. She is currently a member of an interdisciplinary team assessing the biodiversity of Eukaryote species within select lakes of Yellowstone National Park.

Daniel L. McGuire
Aquatic Ecologist
Dan McGuire holds a B.S. in Biology from Colorado State University and a M.S. in Biological Sciences from Montana State University. Dan has 18 years experience as an aquatic entomologist and fisheries biologist. He specializes in the use of macroinvertebrates to diagnose environmental condition and factors limiting fisheries. He has conducted fishery, water quality, and stream/riparian habitat investigations throughout the Rocky Mountain region. For the past 10 years, he has worked extensively in the restoration and management of ponds and riparian zones. Previously he was a biologist for Northern States Power Company and several consulting firms.

Wes Orr
Fisheries Biologist & Aquaculturist
Wes Orr received a B.S. in Fisheries Science from Colorado State University in 1962. During this time, Wes worked three summers for the Mcnenny and Spearfish National Fish Hatcheries; one season committed to conducting intermittent creel census for the South Dakota Fish and Game Department, and one summer conducting salmon investigation work for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. After graduation Wes was appointed a permanent position with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from which he retired after 39 years of productive employment. His experience of raising warm water, cool water, cold water, and anadromous fish species at 8 national fish hatcheries further hones his expertise. Wes has extensive field experience in spawning numerous species of fish including striped bass in North and South Carolina, splake and kokanee in Colorado, walleye and northern pike in Nebraska, and lake trout and cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Park. His qualifications also extend into planning, supervision, hatchery operations, and hatchery disinfectant procedures.

David M. Schmidt
Geohydrologist
BA Geography / Geology (water resources emphasis) University of Montana 1985. Mr. Schmidt has thirty one years of experience in the field of water law and water rights analysis, fifteen years in Montana with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC), five years working as a regional water rights specialist in eight states with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and twelve years as an independent consultant with WRSI. During his tenure with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mr. Schmidt was involved with water rights issues related to wetlands in Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, and Wyoming. Mr. Schmidt has successfully completed or is currently managing water-right projects for over three hundred clients. Mr. Schmidt founded Water Right Solutions, Inc., a successful consulting practice, focusing on defense of historic water rights, water right maintenance, valuation, water rights permitting hydrology and geohydrology. Dave Schmidt provides the following water-rights services:

• Legal support, including the preparation of all documents such as affidavits, interrogatories, requests for and responses to discovery and stipulations, litigation support, and expert witness services.
• Mediation and facilitation services.
• Assistance in new water right permits, change applications, and water-right transfers.
• Historical research for reserved water rights negotiations.
• Conversion of irrigation rights to instream flow for wildlife\habitat enhancement and water leasing.
• Market valuation of instream flow and appropriative water rights.
• Due Diligence evaluation of water rights for ranch real estate transactions.
• Field verifications and preparation of field-verification abstracts.
• Water management plans and water measurement surveys.