Stantec Q&A: Florida Gopher Tortoises Have a Friend in Craig Schmittler

Craig Schmittler, a senior ecologist in the Fort Meyers, Florida, office, was recently presented with a “Volunteer of the Year” award from the City of Bonita Springs for his dedication to the Bonita Springs Nature Place. Craig has worked untold evenings and weekends to get a new 10 acre preserve up and running. While the center features a variety of educational wildlife attractions, Craig’s primary focus has been on developing, maintaining, and protecting the habitat for gopher tortoises, a threatened species. 


Two new hatchlings join the protected community.


Q: Why are gopher tortoises so important?

A: Gopher tortoises vary in size from hatchlings slightly larger than a flattened golf ball, to adults that weigh over 20 pounds. These prehistoric creatures are the only tortoise species found in Florida (click here for the difference between a turtle and a tortoise). For years, they were a common food source for the people in the Panhandle and were listed as a species of “Special Concern.” But as development encroached further into their habitat, in 2008, they were uplisted to a Threatened Species. This means that anyone who works with them must be an authorized agent through Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation to ensure they know how to handle the tortoises and identify and excavate their burrows.


Q: What types of work do you perform for the Nature Center?


Craig visits with two scrub jays, another
threatened species, at Bonita Nature Place.



A: I help in several areas. As the City adds facilities and nature trails, I review site plans to ensure they proceed in a way that doesn’t damage or disturb the tortoise habitat. Routine maintenance can also cause issues when mowers cave in the tortoise burrows. So, I’ve identified and marked the burrows to allow mowing in areas that won’t impact the tortoises. WilsonMiller (now Stantec) is periodically retained to remove nuisance and exotic vegetation from the tortoise preserve to encourage growth of the native grasses and vegetation the tortoises prefer.

Q: Tortoises seem special to you.

A: Tortoises and turtles have always been one of my favorite species. When I was growing up in Illinois we always stopped and picked up the box turtles we found crossing the road. I had a backyard pen where I kept them all summer. Come winter I’d take them out in the woods and turn them loose again. And the next summer I’d start all over again. I also had a wading pool full of little aquatic turtles I’d catch in the park and keep until fall.

A gopher tortoise safely roams the 
grounds of its protected home.

Q: How many tortoises are on the site?

A: At last count around 24 and the population is growing because people are aware of the Nature Center, they are actually dropping the tortoises over the fence when they find them on the roads. We try to discourage that for many reasons, but it’s better than having them killed on the roads.


Q: How does your job with Stantec relate to your volunteer work?

A: I was the first ecologist hired by WilsonMiller (now Stantec) in 1987, when regulatory permitting for land development began to become a much more involved process. There is no place in the US with the variety of listed species and habitat types that you find in Florida because of the subtropical climate. We do species surveys for red-cockaded woodpeckers, gopher tortoises, Florida scrub jays, fox squirrels, burrowing owls, bald eagles, Florida panthers, black bears, and banded tree snails, just to name a few. There are also the listed plants and protected habitat types in different counties in Florida that also have special permitting requirements.

Q: It sounds like you enjoy your job.

A: I enjoy the outdoors and wildlife I encounter and I’m fortunate to have the job I do. A lot of people with office jobs would probably enjoy some of this type work and the wildlife I see in the field. But they wouldn’t like the hot summer days or the neck-deep water we also have to deal with on some projects. It’s a matter of enjoying what you do and having the right experience or training. I was fortunate enough to be here when WilsonMiller needed a biologist all those years ago and am glad to still be here today.

Stantec Q&A: Holly Madara, Associate, Philadelphia, PA

Holly Madara is truly at the intersection of theory and practice. As both a practicing nurse and architect, she directly applies her knowledge and experience in a working hospital to her architectural design projects. Here Holly answers a few questions about what drew her to both professions, and how she makes the connection.

Q: Were you a nurse or an architect first?

A: I was actually an architect first; I got into nursing by happenstance. During the last recession, I went back to school since I had the free time. I took Anatomy and Physiology and liked it a lot so I decided to try nursing. I got my degree in 1995. I never stopped working for architecture firms while I went to night school, and my projects have almost always been healthcare related.

Q: Are there many active healthcare professionals like you in the design field?

A: It used to be unique but I’d say it’s more commonplace now. Many more designers have discovered the advantage of having this inside understanding and bringing in someone who knows efficiencies of design, flow, etc. My situation is a little different because I made that connection in reverse—I went from being an architect to being a nurse. The economy drove my change initially, but it’s really worked out to benefit my design career.

Q: At what point do you typically come into the design process?

A: Most of the work I do is in the upfront, early stages of a project: programming, master planning, predesign, and schematic design. I focus particularly on adjacencies that are important, how to see the building or space from a clinician’s perspective. What I’m especially interested in now is the technology piece of it. Not even 10 years ago medical staff did everything with a pencil or pen. Now everything is almost completely done by computer documentation. So in the spaces we design, the staff need to be more mobile and be able to take what they’re doing further distances.

Q: What are some example projects you’ve applied your experiences to?

A: A recent project is our large effort for Susquehanna Health in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. I was involved in programming, master planning, and schematic design. We ended up with a bigger footprint to appropriately locate supply and work areas among the private rooms.

Q. What are you working on now?

A: One of the most interesting and exciting projects for me is the new work we are doing at Aria Health in Philadelphia, which is where I work one shift a week as a nurse in the cardiac unit. We are providing project management services to develop a scope of work for Emergency Department expansions at both the Frankford and Torresdale campuses. I am one of the people leading the programming and planning effort. This is a great opportunity, and I’m excited to be engaged in it since this is the health system I work in as well.

Why Your Blog Is a Big Deal

Submitted by Wesley Gee, Senior Sustainability Consultant (Markham, ON)

How do we decide what to eat, where to travel, who to vote for, which brand of shampoo to buy, what our opinions are of current events?

As much as we might hate to admit it, many of our decisions are influenced by the Web. Fortunately we are shifting from simply wanting to be informed to being engaged. Instead of reading a news article or patiently watching a television advertisement, unearned trust is becoming a rare commodity, which is leading us to dig deeper for other opinions, insights, and comments to gain the inside scoop.

Why is this important to Stantec and other large North American companies, and how does it relate to social media?

Dell hosts an online platform to share
and discuss innovative ideas.

Employees often want to not only learn more about their company (especially when big decisions are made), but also be engaged in important discussions (to add insights before decisions are made). Regardless of the specific medium, there are budding opportunities for employees to read and comment on candid intranet or blog-based executive messages, while engaging with colleagues through online forums to learn more about changing priorities and innovative ideas—both of which help the company remain competitive by making focused, informed decisions.

For Stantec and its competitors, there is a growing business case to engage with and attract clients and investors using the Web—beyond one’s own corporate website—to establish a public profile that exudes quality and confidence, as well as honesty and responsibility. While the first two qualities are fairly obvious, the second two are more challenging and require that a company speak candidly about its challenges, alongside recent successes, upcoming opportunities, and future objectives.

Investors are now obligated to better understand a publicly traded company’s long-term risks, which can help them make more informed decisions. While these insights often come from publicly available information, investors often receive them from research firms who evaluate a company’s background and performance alongside its competitors and recommend investment decisions. For companies that continue to hold their cards close, they should expect an assertive call from a concerned institutional investor sometime soon.

Wal-Mart issues a 15-question sustainability
assessment questionnaire to its suppliers.

Clients also want similar peace of mind that they are working with reputable and responsible suppliers. In many cases they require that suppliers share information on environmental, social, and economic performance to ensure that their reputations will not be negatively affected. Corporations such as Wal-Mart and IBM, for instance, are taking unprecedented steps to require suppliers to be better engaged in “value chain” innovation discussions and to request that they publicly disclose key risks and performance, which can help in deciding whether a supplier relationship will continue, improve, or cease to exist.

So what does this have to do with me or my company?

Nearly all of this risk/performance information is available to you online and is being discussed and evaluated in a number of ways. Reading a company’s blog, website, articles, and other information only serves to keep you better informed and more engaged in their performance and activities. And while it is difficult to make sense of it all, better information and dialogue allows us to make better decisions—as employees, investors, clients, and consumers.