About Us

“based in Tampa Bay, servicing the entire state of Florida.”

Company Overview

Pale Blue Dot Consulting LLC (PBDC) is a full-service ecological consulting firm based in Tampa FL. We serve both public and private sector clients and our staff has decades of experience working with local, state, and federal regulatory agencies on behalf of clients.

PBDC staff have advanced degrees, professional certifications, and extensive project experience in water resource management, natural resource management, ecosystem restoration, biological and chemical sciences, limnology, wildlife ecology, ichthyology, herpetology, ornithology, botany, taxonomy, water quality, wetland science, compliance audits, emergency response, grant applications, quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) and geographic information systems (GIS).

PBDC currently serves several engineering firms, local governments, private enterprise, and single-family homeowners. These current projects include wetland delineations and permitting, listed species surveys and permitting, mitigation monitoring, living shoreline design and permitting, benthological surveys, and the composition of a quality assurance project plan (QAPP).

Our name comes from a quote from scientist Dr. Carl Sagan when he remarked:

“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

The “pale blue dot” he was referring to was the Earth as seen in a photo from the Voyager spacecraft when it was 6.4 billion km (3 billion miles) away.

Our name reflects our ethos which is to deal kindly and fairly in all matters, because this is all that we have, we are all we have. This translates to better outcomes for our clients and the environment. What sets us apart from all other consulting firms is our commitment to providing clients with legally-defensible data due to our robust and meticulous QA/QC process.

Principals

Eesa Ali and Ryan Countess, PBDC’s Principal Consultants, have over 25 years of combined experience in Ecological and Environmental Consulting and Natural Resource Management. Both Principals worked together as ecological consultants before founding PBDC. These two gentlemen are committed to excellence and truly enjoy what they do.

Eesa is an Aquatic Biologist and a Professional Wetland Scientist (PWS) with a specialty in performing water resource assessments, environmental statistics, and auditing water quality and biological data collection programs.

He has lead teams of scientists in regional studies across Florida conducting compliance audits, biological assessments, and water quality studies to support National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting, Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL), Basin Management Action Plans (BMAP), Water Quality-Based Effluent Limitation Studies (WQBELs), Site-Specific Alternative Criteria (SSAC), Pollution Source Tracking (PST), Microbial Source Tracking (MST), potable water permit compliance, and Emergency Response.

He has also represented the state of Florida performing Shoreline Assessments following the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

He is the past president of the Florida Lake Management Society (FLMS) and he continues to serve FLMS, the Florida Stormwater Association (FSA), and Tampa Bay Association of Environmental Professionals (TBAEP)

Ryan is an Ecologist specializing in the management of wetlands, wildlife, and invasive species management.

He has lead teams of scientists in performing a wide range of listed species surveys, wetland delineations and permitting, qualitative and quantitative wetland assessments, stream and lake biological assessments, floodplain inspections, consumptive use permit (CUP) compliance, stormwater pollution prevention planning/compliance, invasive species mapping and control, and gopher tortoise permitting and relocation as a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Authorized Gopher Tortoise Agent (AGTA). He is currently pursuing graduate studies in ecological restoration, acquiring his PWS certification, and acquiring his International Society of Arborist (ISA) certification.

Ryan remains an active member of professional organizations such as the Tampa Bay Association of Environmental Professionals (TBAEP), Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS), and the City of St.

Petersburg Urban Forestry Committee, continuing to contribute to the field through both his work and community involvement.