Big-Picture Thinking. Hands-On Solutions.
Our Story
Steppe Environmental was founded in Boise, Idaho, in 2017 around a simple belief:
The best environmental work comes from understanding the whole project—not just one piece of it.
Our experience working with agencies, utilities, small to large companies, and multidisciplinary project teams has shown us that clients need more than technical expertise. They need people who take the time to understand their project, recognize how the pieces connect, anticipate issues before they become problems, and work alongside the team to find practical solutions.
We don't just want to be part of the project. We want to make the project better.
We are intentionally multidisciplinary. We don't believe field biology, wetlands, environmental planning, GIS, mapping, permitting, and restoration should exist in separate silos. The person walking a site often sees something that matters to permitting. The person analyzing GIS data may recognize a resource conflict before anyone reaches the field. Understanding the regulatory process changes what we look for on the ground—and knowing the landscape changes how we approach the process.
The more we understand, the more we see. And the more we see, the better we can solve.
We are hands-on by nature. We walk the ground, dig into the data, make the maps, ask the questions, talk through the problems, and think about what comes next. When we identify a constraint, our work doesn't end there. We want to understand what it means, what can be done about it, and how we can help move the project forward.
Today, Steppe provides environmental planning, biological and wetland field services, GIS and mapping, natural resource assessments, and restoration support across western landscapes. We remain intentionally small and collaborative so experienced people stay close to the work and we have the flexibility to bring together the right expertise for each project.
See the whole project. Anticipate what’s ahead. Roll up your sleeves and help solve it. That's Steppe.
Lynell Sutter
Founder and Senior Project Manager
Lynell Sutter is the founder of Steppe Environmental with more than 25 years of experience in environmental consulting, botanical resources, ecological restoration, and natural resource planning. Her work has taken her across western landscapes—from sagebrush steppe and rangelands to forests, wetlands, riparian areas, and mountain environments.
Lynell's expertise is rooted in plant community ecology, but her experience reaches well beyond any one discipline. Over the course of her career, she has led complex environmental projects, managed multidisciplinary teams, conducted biological field studies, supported NEPA and environmental permitting, developed restoration strategies, and used GIS and spatial analysis to understand landscapes and solve project challenges. She is most at home where the pieces overlap.
That perspective is a big part of why she founded Steppe. Lynell believes the best environmental consultants don't simply identify resources and constraints—they understand what those findings mean for the larger project, anticipate what may come next, and work with the team to find a practical path forward. For her, curiosity is part of the job: walk the ground, understand the data, ask the next question, and keep looking until the bigger picture comes into focus.
Lynell also has a deep connection to Idaho's native landscapes, particularly the sagebrush steppe. That passion led her to create Steppe's Native Plant Salvage Program, which gives native plants that would otherwise be lost to development an opportunity to become part of restoration, habitat improvement, and community projects.
“I’ve always believed that the more closely we look at a landscape, the more it has to tell us.”
Kelsey Patterson
Senior Ecologist and NEPA Specialist
Kelsey comes to Steppe with over 15 years of experience in natural resource management. As an avid roamer of wild places and lover of all things living, she has spent her career working for responsible stewardship of natural landscapes within both the public and private sectors, protecting and restoring crucial habitats and wildlands across the West. She thrives in finding solutions that support land management projects while allowing for continued preservation and enhancement of vital water, wildlife, and botanical resources.
As a broad-spectrum ecologist, her experience includes stream monitoring and watershed assessments, wetland delineations and mitigation, ecological restoration and post-project monitoring, threatened and endangered species surveys, vegetation community mapping, wildlife and migratory bird/raptor surveys, invasive species management, and more. She is highly experienced in a variety of field survey protocol and data collection methods, GIS mapping and analysis, environmental policy, impacts analyses, mitigation and permitting. She has also served as a project manager and lead specialist for NEPA assessments as well as Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and Migratory Bird Treaty Act/Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act compliance.
When not at work with Steppe, she can be found wandering the mountains and deserts of the West in search of solitude, beauty, and the soundscapes of wilderness. She revolves her life around her dogs, who work with her and her husband on Grand Targhee Ski Patrol and Teton County Search and Rescue, and lives to explore wild places with them.