Resume

Erik Ohlson, PLS
Professional Land Surveyor & Owner
California License No. LS 8375

Education
B.S. Environmental Resources Engineering, with an emphasis in Water Resources
Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA

A.A. Mathematics, A.S. Environmental Science
Columbia College, Columbia, CA

Training & Certification
OSHA 40-Hour HAZWOPER trained & certified
MSHA Surface Mine trained & certified
Subsurface Utility Locating and Marking Best Practices,
CalOSHA Title 8 certified

Organizations
California Land Surveyor's Association
Past President, Mother Lode Chapter

Background
After graduation from Humboldt State University, my first position was a Junior Engineer with Blair, Church, & Flynn in Clovis, CA. My job responsibilities were primarily stormwater planning and management, and hydrology and hydraulics. It was here that I was first introduced to land surveying and fell in love with it. Some of the significant projects that I worked on here were stormwater planning and design for the Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District, storm drainage design for Highway 168, and party chief for construction survey of Highway 41.

After two years with BC&F, I was fortunate to land a position as an engineer with Condor Earth Technologies in Sonora, CA. During my 10 years with Condor, I was involved with many different types of engineering and surveying projects. Engineering projects included chemical risk management, process safety management, hydrology & hydraulics, atmospheric dispersion modeling, groundwater modeling, environmental site assessment, road design, terrain modeling and volume calculation, and more. Survey projects included high precision GPS surveys for the City of Long Beach, the National Geodetic Survey, and the California Spatial Reference Center; underground surveys of mines, tunnels and caves; hydrographic surveys of lakes and ponds; hundreds of groundwater monitoring well surveys; as well as many more run of the mill topographic, construction, and boundary surveys. After obtaining licensure in 2007, I was promoted to Senior Land Surveyor and managed the survey department for 2 years before economic considerations and company objectives closed the survey group.

I left Condor in January, 2009 to form my own land survey company and am enjoying every minute of it. I continue to be Condor's LS of Record, and service the many satisfied clients I have worked with over the years. I look forward to continuing to serve these clients and expanding my client base, especially engineering and environmental consulting firms. I specialize in those difficult survey projects that require technical expertise not found with your average survey crew.

And my Associates....

Evan Ohlson
Survey Technician

My son Evan has been working with me since he was a small boy and has grown into one of the best survey partners I have had. He is a highly proficient total station and GPS operator, and is rapidly learning the finer points of land surveying in the Sierra Nevada. In addition to working with me, he also works with Jack Gnipp and GPSurveys while attending college.

Stan Kirkwood, PLS
Professional Land Surveyor
& Owner of Kirkwood's Survey Service
California License No. LS 4096

Stan has over 40 years of surveying experience in the Sierra Nevada. He has been my mentor for the finer points of boundary surveying here in the mountains - which is a whole different ball game than surveying in the flatlands. Stan is semi-retired, but we still team up on larger projects and consult with each other on technical and boundary issues that arise.

Jack Gnipp, PLS
District Surveyor, Tuolumne Utility District
& Owner of Gnipp Professional Surveys (GPSurveys)
California License No. LS 7698

I worked under Jack for five years at Condor, and learned nearly everything I know about GPS surveying from him. He has authored several articles and papers on the technical aspects of GPS, and led the charge on the Long Beach Subsidence Monitoring Survey and NGS/CSRC Height Mod surveys that we performed together at Condor. With Jack's expertise, we were able to achieve millimeter-level accuracy, both vertically and horizontally, using static GPS methods. Jack is available for consulting on projects establishing wide-area GPS networks and GPS technical issues.