Meet Our Team: Jeff Gurule
Jeff is a Senior Project Manager at Live Oak Associates
Jeff’s Background
Jeff has been a lifelong enthusiast of the natural world. His interest in nature was sparked and fueled at an early age by the many summer camping trips he took with his family throughout the western states and Canada. During these trips, Jeff was eager to learn everything he could about the natural history of the many areas he visited, going to every ranger-led hike and campfire talk and reading all the interpretive signs and brochures he encountered. His passion for fishing during these trips was a powerful experience that fostered his sense of exploration, a deep understanding of ecological principles, and a profound sense of unity with nature.
Prior to attending university, Jeff fulfilled a lifelong dream of traveling across the country, self-supported on his bicycle, and he rode from his childhood home in Orange County, through the Mojave Desert, to the Rocky Mountains, up to Canada, across Canada to the Pacific Coast, and down the coast back home.
As a student at U.C. Berkeley, Jeff studied biology in the Environmental Science Program and took summer jobs working as a research assistant for a number of wildlife research projects. His academic and field work advanced his knowledge of ornithology, entomology, mammalogy, botany, and forest management. These experiences prepared him for the writing and fieldwork he would later do for Live Oak Associates.
After attending U.C. Berkeley, Jeff worked as an environmental educator for a number of outdoor schools, was a ropes course instructor, and an organic gardener. He settled in the Yosemite area after taking a job at Yosemite National Park’s Wawona Hotel. His time living and working in Yosemite provided him the opportunity to further enmesh in nature through rock climbing, hiking, and backpacking in the nation’s premier national park.
Jeff’s Work at Live Oak Associates
Jeff began work at Live Oak Associates’ Oakhurst office in 2005. With an already strong wildlife background, Jeff honed his botany skills at LOA and has become one of the company’s primary botanists and wetland biologists. During his tenure at LOA, Jeff has become highly skilled at just about every element of work LOA provides for their clients, which includes CEQA, NEPA, and Endangered Species Act biological impact assessments and reporting, environmental permitting, GIS, special status plant and animal surveys, aquatic resource delineations, burrowing owl passive relocation, restoration planning, proposal preparation, and construction monitoring.
In addition, Jeff holds a Large Branchiopod Federal Recovery Permit, is a Level II blunt-nosed leopard lizard surveyor, and has successfully established populations of the state and federally endangered plant species Hartweg’s golden sunburst to previously unoccupied locations under a CDFW scientific research permit. Jeff’s broad understanding of environmental regulations and the biology of plants and animals enables him to effectively interpret, in reports and direct correspondence, the influence these factors may have on his clients’ projects and allows him to offer effective, innovative compliance solutions.
What Jeff Enjoys Most About Working at Live Oak Associates
Jeff enjoys the diversity and challenges his work with LOA provides. He also enjoys the opportunity to survey a diversity of environments on lands that, in most cases, would otherwise be inaccessible. While working or traveling throughout Central California, Jeff greatly appreciates the depth of sense-of-place he feels that has resulted from his cumulative knowledge of the geography and ecology of the region gained from his survey experiences. Jeff also enjoys the community of colleagues, clients, and agency staff that he regularly works with.
What Jeff Enjoys Doing When He Is Not Working
Aside from his interest in the natural world, Jeff’s other passion is music. Jeff plays banjo and guitar in several local bands and can be found frequently performing throughout the greater Oakhurst area. Jeff cherishes the love and closeness he shares with his family and is blessed with the opportunity to regularly perform music with his daughter Elva.
During a recent visit to New Orleans, Jeff and Elva had the amazing opportunity to perform on stage, sitting in with some local bands, at a few renowned jazz clubs on historic Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. Jeff’s favorite recreational activities are running, hiking, and biking, as well as hanging at his local creek with his guitar.
Live Oak Associates provides a comprehensive range of biological consulting services to organizations throughout California. Partner with us to discover how our team can help you with your next project.