SHEET 5 OF 8 · ABOUT · FOUNDED 2003
Twenty-six people on the fourth floor of a Bannock Street building, plus three trucks that are rarely there.
History
Kevin Moreau, PLS and Dr. Hana Sorensen, PE open Kestrel Barrow in a rented room over a print shop at 1215 W Bannock. One total station, one borrowed plotter, and a client list of two.
First subdivision plat: six lots off Eagle Road. The developer pays in two installments and one pie.
Lot sales stop. The firm keeps all fourteen employees by shifting to highway district and irrigation work, and both principals take a year of reduced pay.
First drone pilot licensed under the new FAA rules. The first mapped site is a gravel pit near Mountain Home, which is still a client.
Water resources group formed after two canal projects in a row. Three engineers and two survey technicians, working on the irrigation calendar.
Moved up to Suite 400 in the same building so the crews could have a proper gear room and the plotters could have a door.
Twenty-six staff, three survey crews, three aircraft. The 4,100th boundary survey went on file in the spring, a quarter-acre lot in the North End.
Principals
Grew up on a sheep outfit near Mountain Home and has been retracing old lines since 1994. Kevin reads the General Land Office field notes for fun, which is mostly why the firm gets the difficult boundary calls from other surveyors.
He signs every ALTA map and every record of survey that involves a missing corner.
Spent eight years at a highway district before co-founding the firm, and holds a doctorate in civil engineering with a water resources focus. Hana leads drainage design and the water resources group.
She also runs the Thursday plan review, where anyone in the office can say a drawing does not make sense.
The crews
Boundary retracement and city lots in Boise and Ada County. Marcus Delgado has run this crew for 11 years and can find a 1962 rebar under four inches of lawn.
Construction staking for the subdivisions in Canyon, Gem and Payette counties. Tessa Lindqvist's crew sets about 2,000 stakes in a busy week.
Rural boundaries, ranch work and canal surveys in Owyhee, Elmore and Malheur counties. Ruben Ochoa's truck carries a shovel, a probe and a lot of water.
Equipment
Calibrated every spring, checked against a baseline in the Boise foothills.
| Instrument | Count | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Robotic total stations, 1-second | 6 | Boundary, topo and staking |
| GNSS RTK receivers | 9 | Control, staking, corridor work |
| Digital levels | 4 | Canal inverts, building pads, flume grades |
| Multirotor drones, one with RTK | 3 | Orthophotos, volumes, slope survey |
| Terrestrial laser scanner | 1 | Structures, bridge piers, as-builts |
| Base stations | 2 | Drone control and static sessions |
| Field trucks, two with ATV trailers | 7 | All of it, plus the lunches |
Drone program
The program started in 2016 with one pilot and one aircraft. It now has two FAA-licensed pilots and three aircraft, one with RTK positioning. Every flight is tied to ground control that a surveyor has shot with GNSS, so the maps close to survey tolerance rather than to a photographer's guess.
We fly under 400 feet, we do not fly over people, and we file airspace authorizations for sites near the Boise airport before we drive out. Wind over 20 mph or smoke over the pit and we reschedule.
Memberships: the state society of professional land surveyors, the national society of professional surveyors, the state society of professional engineers, and the regional highway districts association.
Start a job
Visitors can park on the Bannock Street side. The elevator is just past the mailboxes. Call first if you are bringing rolled plans, since the plan table is usually in use.
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