Mr. Dearing has participated in some of the most significant legal actions to have shaped federal wetland policy. He served nine years as a lead trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice representing the Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, and Coast Guard. He is currently in private practice. DearingLawFirm.com

Mr. Anderson is a certified Professional Wetland Scientist, working in natural resource management since 1990. He was a wetland specialist at the Washington State Department of Ecology for eleven years, teaching wetland delineation, hydric soils and determining the OHWM and currently teaches Wetland Law and Policy at the University of Washington.

Mr. Gilbert is a former USDA NRCS employee with more than 35 years experience as a Professional Soil Scientist and Wetland Scientist. He has been providing wetland science training since 1988. He served on the peer review team for the “Draft Regional Supplement to the Corps of Engineers Wetland Delineation Manual: Northcentral and Northeast Region.

Mr. Scoles is principal of Terra Science, Inc. He specializes in wetland delineation, hydric soil evaluation, wetland hydrology assessment, permitting, mitigation, and problematic wetland situations. He has extensive experience working with hydric soils and wetland hydrology.
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Mr. Stringer is a Principal Biologist with 20 years experience in the public and private sector. As an environmental consultant, he has worked on and managed hundreds of projects conducting wetland delineations, botanical surveys, and developing restoration plans for wetlands, oak woodlands, and riparian habitats.

Mr. Tomsovic is a Restoration Ecologist and Senior Project Manager with 20 years of professional experience in the environmental consulting industry. He has successfully designed, implemented, and managed hundreds of restoration projects. His project experience ranges across all habitat types. Mr. Tomsovic formerly served as Board President of the California Society for Ecological Restoration (SERCAL).

Mr. Whited is recently retired from USDA-NRCS with 38 years of experience as a soil scientist. He is a past-chair of the National Technical Committee for Hydric Soils and the New England Hydric Soil Committee. Michael was a principal author of the Field Indicators of Hydric Soils in the U.S. and has described soils in most parts of the U.S.

Mr. Newling is a wetland biologist with over 45 years experience in wetland delineation, restoration, monitoring, and mitigation banking. He participated in writing the 1987 Corps of Engineers Wetlands Delineation Manual and served for 8 years as the national technical coordinator for Corps wetland training. He has testified frequently as an expert witness.
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Mr. Collinson has over 30 years experience with wetland regulation; 26 of those in the Corps of Engineers Headquarters Regulatory Branch where he had primary responsibility for development of regulations, policy guidance, and the nationwide permit program. Since retiring, he has worked as a consultant on regulatory and wetland issues.

Mr. Knapp is a professional botanist and ecologist specializing in rare, threatened, and endangered species, taxonomy and morphology. He is an expert on Sedges (Cyperaceae) and Rushes (Juncaceae) and has authored keys for various Floras. He works as Chief Botanist at NatureServe and serves as a regional reviewer for the Flora of North America Project.
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Mr. Smith is an Environmental Scientist with 25 years of experience implementing and overseeing regulatory programs.  He served 20 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Program in three Corps’ Districts and 5 years with the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources as their Wetland Bank Program Coordinator.
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Mr. Sward has worked as a biologist in southern California for more than 30 years. He is a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner and was the senior technical specialist at HELIX Environmental Planning where he oversaw field investigations, restoration projects, wetland delineations, vegetation mapping and rare plant studies.
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Dr. Thomasson is curator of the herbarium at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History at Fort Hays State University. He has taught classes in aquatic biology, botany, dendrology, flowering plant taxonomy, and grass taxonomy for 30 years. Each year since 2002 he has served as a senior plant taxonomist consulting to the U. S. Forest Service, the NRCS, and a major mineral resources corporation.