About Us

Blackwater Environmental Design is a small, family business that provides personal service to our clients, asking the questions that help us meet their specific needs with each project. Our designer is a New Hampshire Professional Geologist and Certified Wetland Scientist with more than 35 years of experience in groundwater hydrology, wetlands evaluation and soil science, as well as environmental site assessment. He is licensed by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Protection under Chapter 485-A:35, I, RSA, the same as the big firms.

Despite our small size, Blackwater Environmental Design is a state-of-the-art business. All of our work is performed electronically, making it possible to;

• record field observations and survey data electronically, streamlining data collection;
• quickly complete draft designs/documents; 
• provide electronic draft designs/documents for our client's review in Portable Document Format; 
• quickly revise draft designs/documents based on client or NHDES comments; 

His experience on the Town of Salisbury Planning Board and Conservation Commission, and later experience working at the NHDES' Wetlands Bureau made it clear to Blackwater Environmental Design's founder that NHDES relies heavily on the quality of the data collected, interpreted, and presented by wetland scientists and geologists in New Hampshire to accurately characterize site conditions and represent them to NHDES for their decision making. This highlighted the need for scientists that are both observant and objective, and not driven solely by the sometimes unreasonable expectations of land owners and developers. In response to this need, in 2003 Mr. Schmidl obtained his license as a New Hampshire Designer of Subsurface Disposal Systems, and began Blackwater Environmental Design. Blackwater Environmental Design is founded on the principles of objectivity and honesty in meeting client's needs. These principles have helped Blackwater Environmental Design establish a good reputation with NHDES for high quality environmental interpretation. With land available for development in New Hampshire becoming increasingly "marginal", i.e., shallow ledge, steep slopes and high water tables, this objectivity is a benefit both to the environment and to the client.

We like to think of Blackwater Environmental Design as a company that provides benefits to the community and environment, as well as the client. Whether it’s a new subdivision, a replacement for a failed septic system, or a wetland delineation or permit, Blackwater Environmental Design is ready to provide an candid appraisal of your site and a design or evaluation that you’ll be happy with.

Blackwater Environmental Design supports "environmentally-sensitive development," providing development solutions that  tread as lightly as possible on the natural landscape and meet our client’s high expectations. Our goal is for your design to utilize the fullest potential of your site and meet your needs, but result in the least impact to the environment. We believe that we can provide better solutions because we look more carefully at each site, to find its best potential for the owner. This philosophy guides our work for our clients, and provides our clients and ourselves with satisfaction at the completion of each project.

We take a different approach to meet our client’s environmental design needs. Instead of imposing a design onto the site, we "read the lines of Nature’s palm" to determine the true characteristics of the landscape. Soil, slope, hydrology, and vegetation combine in a unique pattern, giving each site its own strengths and weaknesses. Discovering these strengths and weaknesses and applying this information to the task at hand, we arrive at a solution that is intended to serve our client’s needs while respecting the existing landscape.