Gulf Coast Oil Spill Restoration Planning

Great Ecology’s Founder and President, Dr. Mark Laska, was named a potential expert witness for legal counsel following natural resource injuries from an incident that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. Laska’s team provided ecological services for a range of restoration planning concepts and strategies, with particular focus on prioritization of Gulf Coast restoration projects to offset natural resource injuries; evaluation of cost, feasibility and functional uplift for multiple early restoration projects proposed across the Gulf Coast states; and identification of key success factors for Gulf Coast restoration, derived from Great Ecology’s restoration prioritization evaluation of more than 550 potential Gulf Coast restoration projects. The team also developed a large-scale empirical study intended to support the client’s litigation position regarding the amount and type of compensatory mitigation needed to offset natural resource injuries. The case has settled.