ANITA SMYTH

Anita is one of Winterbrook Planning’s skilled Senior Wetland Scientists. She focuses on federal, state, and local agency permitting related to wetlands and waterways, and occasionally delves into long-range and land development planning. Her favorite part of her job is finding planning, engineering, and permitting solutions that maximize the benefit for everyone involved, while ensuring that the costs and burdens do not fall disproportionately on any one party. Her specialty, and source of inspiration and motivation for her work, is getting involved with the Oregon Goal 5 process (protecting natural resources and conserving scenic and historic areas and open spaces).

“I enjoy being a guide that reduces the stress of the [wetland and waterway permitting] process.“

Her career began in Clackamas County Department of Transportation & Development, where she worked in the Engineering Design Team. She was deployed in an array of situations, including on construction projects, environmental permitting, guardrail design, and public meetings. She went on to work with WH Pacific, working full time in the Water Resources Group with Phil Quarterman (another one of Winterbrook Planning’s Wetland Scientists), gaining proficiency and judgement with experience on many different water and wetland projects. Seeking to work with a broader suite of ecologists, she then struck out as a sole proprietor. Alone and on small teams, she gained further expertise in project management, field practices, and permitting as the lead professional. She was recruited by one of her clients, Tim Brooks. Since then, she has worked on a number of large public capital improvement projects and has enjoyed participating in long-range and local-agency planning work.

In her free time, she can still be found outside. She likes hiking, working at her Dad’s or brother’s farms, gardening, quilting, or sitting by a river. 

Representative Projects:

Bull Run Filtration Facility
Anita conducted the wetland delineation and prepared the wetland delineation report for the Portland Water Bureau’s Bull Run Filtration Facility and associated pipeline corridors. She secured permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), and Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL), and supported the project’s Programmatic Environmental Assessment with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Anita also supported land use submittals with Significant Natural Resources Assessments and rare plant surveys, represented the project team at three Streamlining Committee and agency coordination meetings, and helped ensure environmental opportunities and constraints were addressed throughout design. She contributed to the legal response to project appeals, resulting in final approval, and later provided expert review for the Cottrell Pond wetland delineation.

Silverton Pettit Reservoir Trail
Anita led the wetland delineation fieldwork and prepared the delineation report for the City of Silverton’s Pettit Reservoir trail project. She worked closely with project landscape architects to refine the boardwalk alignment, minimizing impacts to wetlands and waterways while simplifying applicable state and federal permitting requirements.

Tigard River Terrace 2.0 Tree Survey
Anita was part of the team conducting the inventory and assessment of tree groves and specimen trees across the 500-acre River Terrace 2.0 area in west Tigard, building on her earlier work on River Terrace 1.0 and previous City-wide inventories. She participated in developing the inventory and mapping methodology and presented findings to the Citizens Advisory and Housing Advisory Committees.