Virginia Mahacek
Principal Geomorphologist

Overview
Virginia Mahacek is a fluvial geomorphologist with an extensive background in education and outreach, restoration planning and design, environmental compliance, and natural resource management. She has 28 years of experience as a technical analyst and project manager of watershed assessments, stream studies, restoration planning, design development, baseline and performance monitoring, alternatives analysis, compliance, and construction oversight. Virginia is accomplished in environmental compliance pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) regulations, and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licensing. She has served a variety of local, state, tribal, non-governmental and federal lead agencies and on projects of varied spatial scale, technical complexity and regulatory context.
Virginia effectively communicates technical and planning issues with varied agencies and public stakeholders and facilitates planning progress within challenging community and regulatory settings. Her expertise includes natural and human disturbance-responses, climate change, wildfire hazard and risk reduction, and beaver management. She has worked across the western United States, with a focus on Lake Tahoe, the Sierra Nevada, and the Columbia River Basin.
Projects
Upper York Creek Dam Removal and Ecosystem Restoration, City of St. Helena, Napa County, California
Sulphur Creek Fish Passage Improvement, Napa County Resource Conservation District, Sonoma County, California
Bolinas Lagoon Wye Wetland Resiliency Project, Marin County Open Space District, Marin County, California
San Francisquito Creek Bank Stabilization, Children’s Health Council, Palo Alto, California
Lookout Slough Restoration Project, California Department of Water Resources/Ecosystem Investment Partners, Solano County, California
General Plan Update and Environmental Impact Report, City of Fairfield/Dyett & Bhatia, Fairfield, California
Taking Action to Reduce Wildfire Hazards: An Initiative of the Rebuild NorthBay Foundation, Sonoma, Napa, Lake and Mendocino Counties, California
Butte Sink Mitigation Bank and Salmonid Habitat Restoration, Private Client, Colusa County, California
Prior to WRA: Fire Recovery & Resiliency Planning, County of Sonoma Office of Recovery and Resiliency, Sonoma County, California
Education
M.A. Physical Geography, University of California, Davis
B.A., Physical Geography, with Honors, University of California, Davis
A.A. Liberal Arts, with Highest Honors, Santa Rosa Junior College