The RE Team
Tom Coleman, P.E.
Tom is a Senior Water Resource Engineer with 21 years of applied water resource engineering experience. Tom has designed and implemented over 30 miles of stream restorations in a diverse range of environmental conditions and over 300 acres of wetland restorations. His formal civil and environmental engineering background, coupled with a thorough knowledge of natural biological systems and fluvial geomorphology, has allowed Mr. Coleman to develop a unique insight regarding natural systems design. Much of Tom’s intangible understanding of aquatic systems has been informed by a lifelong love of exploring moving waters and the wildlife that inhabits them.
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Prior to forming Restoration Engineering, LLC, Tom was co-founder of Aquatic Design & Construction, Inc. Following acquisitions, he stayed on with OASIS Environmental and then Environmental Resources Management (ERM) for 5 years. Creation of Restoration Engineering, LLC is an endeavor through which Tom can provide specialized design services to clients undertaking rewarding projects that provide important environmental benefits.
Matt Blank, P.E. and Ph.D.
Matt is a Senior Water Resource Engineer and has over 20 years of experience conducting both academic studies and consulting activities on water resource issues. He is also currently a research scientist and assistant research professor at the Western Transportation Institute and the Civil Engineering Department at Montana State University. He is co-principal investigator of a fish passage and swimming research facility formed through a partnership with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. This facility develops engineering design criteria for instream structure design and fish passage works. He teaches applied fluid mechanics and engineering hydraulics at MSU. Through both research and consulting activities, Dr. Blank has been involved with the assessment and/or design of over 150 hydraulic structures in rivers and streams across the country and in Canada. He also has completed many projects involving river hydraulics, hydrologic assessment, hydraulic modeling and natural channel design.
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Prior to joining Restoration Engineering, LLC, Matt worked in Alaska for OASIS Environmental and then Environmental Resources Management (ERM) for a combined 22 years. Matt previously worked together with Tom and Drake at OASIS and ERM, prior to joining forces at RE, LLC.
Drake Burford, M.S.
Drake is a Senior Biologist and Hydrologist with over 20 years of applied water resource experience. He has restored over 25 miles of streams and rivers and 225 acres of wetlands and riparian areas throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Drake’s academic background in hydrology and fisheries, combined with his comprehensive professional experience, has provided him with the knowledge and skills necessary to implement a broad array of project types including stream restoration, fish passage, hydrologic investigation, and fisheries habitat assessment and population monitoring. Specializing in construction implementation and management of natural channel design projects, Mr. Burford has applied experience utilizing a wide variety of restoration techniques, each tailored to meet project specific conditions.
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Before joining Restoration Engineering, LLC, Drake worked for several consulting firms including Aquatic Design & Construction, Inc., OASIS Environmental, and Environmental Resources Management (ERM). Drake, Tom, and Matt have worked together much of the last 15 years, prior to joining together at RE, LLC.
RE Associates
In addition to the principal ownership team, RE maintains a network of professional associates who can provide a broad array of expertise, knowledge, and experience to help handle the largest and most complex projects.