“I have found AloTerra to be an excellent collaborator and partner, producing high quality and technically sound projects in an efficient and 100% reliable manner”
~ Heather Knight, The Nature Conservancy of Colorado, Project Collaborator
John Giordanengo, M.S., CERP
John brings more than 24 years of experience in ecological restoration to AloTerra’s clients, and more than 200 completed projects in grassland, riparian, wetland, alpine, forest, and sagebrush ecosystems throughout Colorado, Wyoming, California, and Washington. His restoration strategies are driven not simply from a passion for accomplishing successful ecological results, but also from a deep understanding of soils, ecology, botany, hydrology, and the integration of these disciplines in a restoration setting. John’s dedication to excellence earned him the Colorado Riparian Association Excellence in Riparian Management Award in 2010.
John has developed native seed mixes and plant palettes for federal and state projects, as well as for numerous municipalities and private clients whose interest in the best ecological outcomes continues to press John to refine his knowledge and skills, as well as the skills of AloTerra’s staff. In addition to creating seeding BMP’s for Colorado State Parks and developing 157 seed mixes for all of Colorado’s State Parks, John also managed a team of Federal and local practitioners and scientists to implement a Stream Visual Assessment Protocol for 45 miles of the Big Thompson River and North Fork Big Thompson following the flood.
John has worked with regional, state, and local agencies to develop training curricula for willow restoration and riparian restoration, ecological restoration for the Colorado Outdoor Training Initiative and Wildlands Restoration Volunteers, and an Alpine Restoration Manual for the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative. In 2016, in support of Rocky Mountain Flycasters and the Colorado Conservation Board, John lead a team of authors and a Technical Advisory Committee to develop Living Streambanks, a Manual to Bioengineering Treatments for Colorado Streams.
Lyz Bender, B.S., Restoration Project Supervisor & Wildlife Biologist
Growing up in Nashville, TN, Lyz volunteered for the Harpeth River Watershed which inspired her initial interest in ecological restoration. Since moving to Colorado, Lyz has been studying and working with wildlife and restoration for the past seven years. Following the 2012 Colorado Front Range floods, she has been involved with over a dozen erosion control and stream restoration projects in which she has lead revegetation crews of up to 20 members, completed Habitat Suitability Assessments, researched critical habitats of endangered species, and installed various erosion control and bioengineering treatments.
Working for AloTerra, Lyz supervises ecological restoration projects, trains and leads restoration crews, operates equipment, manages weeds, and provides a great variety of related services. Lyz also conducts wildlife reviews and completes reports associated with Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. She holds two B.S. degrees from Colorado State University in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology and Natural Resources Management. Through her position at AloTerra she enjoys working every day to improve wildlife habitats across Colorado and Wyoming.
Sarah J. Smith, M.Sc., Restoration Ecologist I & Regulatory Compliance Specialist
Sarah has worked across the United States as a botanist and ecologist. In Florida, she worked with land managers across the state, evaluating restoration efforts on Wildlife Management Areas and providing feedback for improving diversity. This included leading a seed bank study in a sand pine plantation to inform restoration treatments. In Yellowstone National Park, Sarah worked across the Park completing wetlands delineations with USACE and NPS standards, rare plant surveys, and monitoring for wetland mitigation and restoration. For three years, she led a crew of four people, training and teaching them how to identify hydric soils, plant species using dichotomous keys, and a variety of vegetation surveys throughout the Park. For the Great Basin Institute, Sarah followed NRCS Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring protocol to evaluate BLM land in the Sonoran Desert to determine overall species composition. Data was used to govern placement of solar panels with as little impact to native and rare plant and animal species. In Big Thicket National Preserve, Sarah worked with the Natural Resources team to restore longleaf pine and update monitoring protocol for the rare and endemic Texas trailing phlox. Sarah actively educated the public about the importance of longleaf pine to southeastern forests by leading volunteer groups in planting longleaf pine seedlings. Since joining AloTerra, Sarah’s role has included designing wetland mitigation and restoration plans for a diverse array of projects throughout Colorado. Sarah also manages AloTerra’s regulatory compliance program and leads wetland delineations to USACE standards. Sarah’s wide range of experience has given her a thorough understanding of how dynamic and nuanced plant communities across the U.S. are, and the efforts required to maintain and increase structural and functional biodiversity at every level.
Connor Thornton, B.S., Restoration Project Supervisor & Qualified Weed Supervisor
Connor’s passion for restoring natural landscapes steams from his lifelong experiences spent in the outdoors. After graduating college in 2016, he has worked for AloTerra Restoration Services as a crew member, and worked his way up to crew leader and then restoration project supervisor. During that time, he gained experience with revegetation, erosion control, bio engineering, forest thinning, heavy equipment operating, weed management, surveying, grading, crew leadership, project site management, site safety, and environmental compliance. He has worked with various government agencies and private landowners developing weed management plans and supervising restoration projects on the Colorado Front Range. Connor has also led projects involving the use of heavy equipment to re-grade wetland benches and riparian banks, and in skidding and chipping timber. He has experience in felling, bucking, limbing and chipping of tress in some of Colorado’s mountainous terrain using everything from chainsaws to heavy equipment. Connor has completed restoration projects from Colorado’s Front Range up to alpine ecosystems, developing vast experience in multiple life zones and the challenges of restoring a great variety of plant communities in these zones. This experience has provided him with a fine understanding of hundreds of species that survive in all of Colorado’s life zones, and the detail necessary to ensure their successful establishment in a restoration setting.
Cheryl Giordanengo, Controller
Cheryl is highly detail-oriented, analytical, and a systems thinker. She “runs in the background” at AloTerra, making sure all the systems are functioning smoothly, from payroll, human resources, bonding, financing, and insurance to payables and receivables. She brings over 20 years of experience in accounting for small locally owned companies and publicly traded companies and a depth of accounting knowledge to AloTerra. Because of her, AloTerra has the ability to manage well a variety of federal (FEMA and other federal financial tracking requirements), state (CPW, CWCB, and others), and local (County, City, and Private) financial accounting needs to ensure important details are handled right the first time.
Cheryl has served as Accounting Manager for a company with 80 employees and $6 million in annual sales and as a Senior General Ledger Accountant responsible for the international division and the corporate office accounting for a company with $1 billion in annual sales. From this experience, as well as from her experience in accounting with several local and regional companies, All of these skills and innate abilities make her a great accountant for a small business, as she leverages her top notch corporate accounting principles and practices to bear upon a local business environment in which she thrives. Her role with AloTerra also includes payroll, human resources, bonding, financing, and insurance.