Who We Are

We are environmental professionals with nearly 50 years of collective experience. Whether you need guidance in navigating the complex environmental permitting processes or natural resource assessments/surveys, we can help.

Meet the Ardea team:
Lois Edwards – Permit & Compliance Manager

Lois is our permitting guru and has extensive experience at the federal and state levels for a wide variety of project types. Under the Joint Coastal Program (JCP), she has permitted and documented regulatory compliance of local and federal beach restoration projects and associated stabilization structures, monitoring, emergency fill projects and mitigation artificial reefs. Lois works closely with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers staff to initiate noticing of projects, conclude federal agency consultations and decision documents and finalize the federal permit and required monitoring. Lois has established relationships with Florida District and Water Management staff and has obtained Environmental Resource Permits (ERP) permits and state lands authorization throughout Florida for public and private waterfront parks, docks, marinas and navigational dredging, fishing piers, pavilions, boardwalks, bulkheads and living shorelines. Under the Coastal Construction Control Line (CCCL) Lois has permitted a wide range of oceanfront development including public recreational parks and accesses, dune restoration, seawalls, emergency fill projects, and private and commercial development. She is well-recognized in the industry as extremely knowledgeable, fair, personable, and persistent.

Kim Colstad – Certified Ecologist

Kim is our staff ecologist, who started her career at Florida Department of Environmental Protection in the Environmental Resource Permits (ERP) section. She has since worked in the environmental consulting and coastal engineering world for over a decade, gaining experience in other permitting programs such as Joint Coastal Permits (JCP) and federal regulations, while continuing to develop her skills within the realm of ERP. She studied marine biology at University of Miami and then went on to earn her Master’s in Ecology and Conservation Biology at University of Central Florida. Kim is one of fewer than 100 Certified Ecologists in the state of Florida through the Ecological Society of America, the largest organization of professional ecologists. At Ardea Environmental Consultants, Kim conducts a variety of environmental field work including seagrass/benthic resource surveys, wetland delineations, mangrove assessments, and other natural resource studies that support UMAM or environmental resource permits, as well as permitting projects herself.

Kim and Lois celebrating the first year of Ardea, July 2017.