Senior Project Manager
rich.brereton@brienvironmental.org
207-839-7600

Rich joined BRI in 2022 as a Senior Project Manager, bringing five years of environmental consulting experience and a Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Science from the University of New Hampshire. As a consultant, Rich has led dozens of projects involving environmental permitting for renewable energy and transportation, watershed planning, water quality monitoring, drinking water protection, and municipal comprehensive planning, among others. During his doctoral studies, Rich conducted field research on tropical forest and stream nutrient cycling in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. He also taught undergraduate courses in water quality management and earth system science and led general biology laboratory sections.

Rich has a wide body of environmental science and consulting experience and contributes to BRI’s renewable energy permitting programs, as well as the BRI Climate Change initiative on soil carbon and grassland restoration.

• University of New Hampshire, Durham (2017) – Ph.D., Earth & Environmental Science
•  Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO (2008) – B.A., Environmental Science,

• Forest and stream nutrient and carbon cycling
• Watershed water quality management
• Climate change resilience
• Integrated environmental science and policy

Brereton, R.L., Burgos Caraballo, S., Lilyestrom, C.G., McDowell, W.H. 2021. Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Ch. 17 in Ryan, Douglas F., ed. Biological responses to stream nutrients: a synthesis of science from experimental forests and ranges. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-981. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 522 p.

Wymore, A.S., Brereton, R.L., Ibarra, D.E., Maher, K., McDowell, W.H. 2017. Critical zone structure controls concentration-discharge relationships and solute generation in forested tropical montane watersheds. Water Resources Research, 53, doi:10.1002/2016WR020016.

Morse, N.B., Pelissier, P.A., Cianciola, E.N., Brereton, R.L., Sullivan, M.M., Shonka, N.K., Wheeler, T.B., McDowell, W.H. 2014. Novel ecosystems in the Anthropocene: a revision of the novel ecosystem concept for pragmatic applications. Ecology and Society 19(2).

McDowell, W.H., Brereton, R.L., Scatena, F.N., Shanley, J.B., Brokaw, N.V., Lugo, A.E. 2013. Interactions between lithology and biology drive the long-term response of stream chemistry to major hurricanes in a tropical landscape. Biogeochemistry 116(1-3) 175-186.