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. Newling is a Certified Wetland Biologist (CWB) and Professional Wetland Scientist (PWS) with over 45 years of experience in wetland delineation, restoration, monitoring, and mitigation banking. He participated in writing the 1987 United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Wetlands Delineation Manual and served for 8 years as the national technical coordinator for USACE wetland training. He has testified frequently as an expert witness on these issues.
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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. 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. 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. 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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Ms. Lokovic-Gamber is a Regulatory Specialist and Environmental Scientist with experience in wetland delineation, permitting, and restoration in Southern California. She has coordinated Clean Water Act Section 404 and 401 authorizations and streambed alteration agreements for numerous public and private projects. Her qualifications include advanced wetland training, CRAM certification, and hands-on work with agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board.
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Ms. McArthur has been an environmental consultant since 1994, bringing broad technical expertise and a big-picture understanding of scientific and regulatory issues. She specializes in fish and wetland impact assessments, permitting and mitigation, and restoration design. Her skills include wetland delineation, stream characterization, water quality monitoring, and habitat and ecosystem evaluations.

Ms. Rogers is a leader in water resources with SWCA Environmental Consultants. Bonnie has over ten years of experience as a former federal regulator with National Marine Fisheries Service, Los Angeles District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Region 9 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Southern California, issuing hundreds of permits and developing agency policies. Bonnie specializes in delineations, NEPA, permitting, coastal projects, mitigation banking, and compliance.
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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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A nationally recognized hydrogeologist with over 30 years experience specializing in wetland hydrology, Dr. Straw has consulted for both private industry and government agencies, including the Wetlands Research Team at the Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station. He also taught in and directed the Geology Department at Western Michigan University.

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. 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 emeritus of the herbarium at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, KS, and has taught plant identification courses for WTI since 2011. He has taught university courses in agrostology, dendrology and plant taxonomy for more than 30 years, and has conducted plant surveys for many government agencies and private companies.

Ms. Whited retired in 2019 following a 35+ year career in public service implementing local, state and federal wetland regulatory programs, conducting delineations and functional analyses, and writing and reviewing permit applications. In her last role as Senior Ecologist for 10 years for the USACE Regulatory Program at the St. Paul District, including work in the New England District and Regulatory Headquarters in Washington, D.C., she helped develop policy and provided training in wetland delineation and regulatory policies to both the public and private sector.

Mr. Whited is a Certified Professional Soil Scientist (CPSS) and Certified Professional Soil Classifier (CPSC) with 40 years experience as a soil scientist. He was regional director of the USDA-NRCS Soil Survey for the West Central Glaciated Region, past chair of the National Technical Committee for Hydric Soils and the New England Hydric Soil Committee, and a principal author of the Field Indicators of Hydric Soils in the U.S.