Jack Alexander would rather be outside counting grass.
No, not goofing off, like the rest of us.
Working.
For Alexander, digging in the dirt and smelling the flowers is serious business.
Alexander owns and runs Synergy Resource Solutions, Inc., a Sparks-based natural resource technical service.
In other words, he collects and analyzes data on vegetation and wildlife for clients who need environmental permits.
Say a power company wants to build a transmission line from Reno to Salt Lake City.
The company maps what it considers to be the best route.
That's just the beginning.
Now it needs plenty of right of way and environmental permits to lay the line.
To do that, the energy supplier has to prove the project will have little to no impact on the environment.
Enter Synergy.
First, Alexander and his crew find all the available data, such as aerial and topographical maps from the U.S.
Geological Survey and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Then the group scours the route looking for what Alexander calls "areas of critical environmental concern," such as wetlands and endangered or threatened species of both the plant and animal kind.
If along the way they find buckwheat or sage grouse, for example, they collect data, analyze it and report back to the client the results.
If there is an impact to the environment that can be managed, Synergy maps out a plan for mitigating it.
That plan would include reclamation work, such as replacing native plants once the construction be it a power line, mine or pipeline is complete.
Synergy can do that too.
And it can monitor the site for years to come, as is often required by environmental permits.
"We measure it," before the project starts, said Alexander.
Once it's completed, "we restore it to its former self.
Then we monitor after its done to see if it is restored.
It can be one to three years to see if plants come up and survive." And it can take any time from three to 20 years to get a reclamation bond back, said Alexander.
A typical mining project, which always requires a reclamation bond, usually calls for four study sites for every square mile, said Alexander.
If an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement is needed for federal or state agencies, Synergy can prepare it.
Those, too, can take up to three years to complete.
The company can also provide litigation support and expert testimony, since many of cases end up in court, says Alexander.
In Nevada, there isn't as much readily available data to rely on, said Alexander.
But even if Synergy finds an area of concern, it is a less a roadblock here than elsewhere.
"In Nevada, there's so much land you can usually go around it," said Alexander.
That doesn't mean Nevada is problem- free.
The state, like most of the West, is full of sage grouse.
The species isn't endangered, or even threatened, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, but a group of environmentalists that once targeted the spotted owl for protection have now set their sights on the sage grouse, said Alexander.
Synergy works outside Nevada, from Texas westward.
"In the West," said Alexander, "there are thousands of endangered species." Alexander founded the company in 1996.
In addition to Alexander, Brenda Kury, an environmental specialist and certified environmental inspector, works out of Jackson, Wyo., for Synergy, and Juliane Kluck, a soil scientist, is based in Sparks.
When he was 17, Alexander started a roofing company to help pay for college, where he received both bachelor's and master's degrees in range science.
After school he worked for a few years as a ranch and construction contractor in Texas, where he's from.
He then served as extension range manager for the University of Nebraska in Scottsbluff, and eventually landed in Carson City where he worked for Resource Concepts Inc.
for six years before launching Synergy.
Alexander's ranching experience helped prepare him for working with one of his biggest category of clients, ranchers, who need permits to graze on public lands.
The company, though, has a wide range of clients, including ranches such as Smith Creek Ranch Ltd.
in Churchill and Lander counties, to the Bureau of Land Management, The Nature Conservancy and WBS Inc.
and Union Power Construction Co.
The breadth may be due in part to Synergy's scientific objectivity.
"We don't have an agenda," says Alexander.
"We collect data."
