Leif Embertson

About Leif Embertson

Water is the one thing in my life that has always made sense to me. Whether standing in, floating down, or walking next to, rivers have always been my center point. My passion for rivers began at an early age on the banks of the North Umpqua River in southern Oregon. From those beginnings, I have pursued a life-course and career with an intent focus that has allowed me the opportunity to make a positive difference on the health and function of the natural landscape. My experience and knowledge of the riverine environment emanates from education, training, project experience, and extensive personal interest. I am a licensed engineer in the state of CO, OR, WA, and WY, a certified floodplain manager, and serve on the board of directors for a local watershed NPO. In my current role as President, I am responsible for supporting NSD’s mission to have a big impact through doing leading edge innovative work. This entails building our capabilities, creating teams, and ensuring our staff and clients have the resources to do great work. It is easily the most challenging and rewarding role I have pursued in my professional career. Luckily, the team at NSD is exceptionally bright, positive, and a pleasure to lead. The evolution of rivers across the landscape over millennia is what created the complex aquatic habitats that supported the productive fisheries historically found within the rivers and streams of the Pacific Northwest. Our work is to understand the processes that are driving those changes and then to develop solutions that will achieve the specific goals of a project that will work within those systems. In doing so we can improve the health and function of river systems by working to restore impacted environments and by reducing/eliminating impacts at the human river interface.

Experience

1. President, Principle River Engineer

   Natural Systems Design

   May 2012 — Present · Seattle, WA, US

Education

• Colorado State University

  MS, Civil Engineering

  2004 — 2006

• Oregon State University

  BS, Civil Engineering

  1997 — 2001

Skills

• Grading
• New Business Development
• Water Resources
• Risk Assessment
• Water Quality
• Road
• Sewer
• Drainage
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Water
• Gis
• Geomorphology
• Water Resource Management
• Environmental Permitting
• Project Coordination
• Civil Engineering
• Construction Management
• Flood
• Construction Supervision
• River Engineering
• Stormwater Management
• Construction
• Gis Analysis
• Hydraulics
• Construction Drawings
• Proposal Writing
• Erosion
• Geoprocessing
• Hec-Hms
• Land Development
• Environmental Engineering
• Site Development
• Sediment Transport
• Hec-Ras
• Field Operations
• Hydrology
• Autocad
• Hydraulic Modeling
• Stream Restoration
• Groundwater