Chrissy Bienz on the (Wonderfully) Dirty Side of Environmental Planning

A love of the outdoors, wildlife, and science led Chrissy Bienz to a career in environmental planning. While she’s often out in the field, you may glimpse her and her four-legged shadow, Simba, the office dog, at our Carmel, IN, location. 

Q: What’s an interesting project you worked on at Terracon?

I went to Mammoth Cave to attend a training course for mist netting (catching bats) and acoustic survey data analysis. I was also able to assist in a mist netting project in West Virginia.

Q. Why bats?

I fell in love with surveying wildlife in college, and found an opportunity to study bats in grad school. Bats are a very diverse species, and there is so much more information to learn about how each species interacts with our environment. They provide many benefits such as pest control and pollination. My favorite answer to why people should care about bats is that they pollinate agave plants, which give us tequila!

Q. What do you like about being a Group Manager?

I like seeing newer team members gain confidence in their field skills and begin to take the lead. With the help of an amazing team, we completed a wetland and Waters of the United States (WOTUS) delineation for a 3,160-acre site. On our call with the regulatory reviewer, he agreed with our findings and did not need additional field data or a site visit to complete his review.

Q. What support have you received in your career?

I have a great network of mentors at Terracon, all over the country. My management team actively supports my goal to obtain my federal recovery permit for bats, even when it takes additional travel and project coordination. Whenever there’s a bat project, everyone finds a way for me to be a part of it.

Even when I first started as a field scientist doing Phase 1 surveys, every project with a large, vacant lot was mine. Everyone knew I wanted to be out in the woods.

On the personal side, I feel lucky that I could transfer from the Fort Worth office to Indianapolis to be closer to family. And speaking of, I have to give my parents credit for laying the foundation for my work ethic. Farm life is tough but worth it.