About Us

Our Approach

WHAT WE DO: We help clients develop property sustainably by identifying cultural and natural resources on their parcel, and recommending avoidance, minimization or mitigation of impacts to those resources during project permitting and implementation.

WHO WE WORK WITH: Typically, Spindrift partners with:

  • engineering, environmental, planning, historic preservation and biology firms that don't have in-house cultural and natural resources specialists;
  • environmental attorneys, real estate agents and private developers that need our expertise; or
  • work directly for federal, state or local agencies.

WHY IT WORKS: When you partner with Spindrift you get the most efficient and affordable environmental compliance and mitigation services that land developers and their consultants are looking for right now.

WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT: Spindrift staff have over 25 years of combined experience with environmental compliance and mitigation; our firm has many small business certifications (SBE, MBE, WBE, DBE, SLBE, ESB) that can help our teaming partners be more competitive when bidding on projects; our clients get personal, 1-on-1 attention and Customer Service/Support from the firm owner; and we provide our clients high quality deliverables at competitive prices needing minimal to no revisions after permitting agency review.

WHAT OTHERS SAY: Check out Spindriftʻs recommendations on the firm ownerʻs LinkedIn profile.

HOW IT WORKS: We first discuss your needs via email, phone or in-person meeting; then we provide you with a free evaluation and cost proposal; and when the proposal is approved, we can assist you with work plans, resource inventories, and mitigation monitoring and compliance.

READY TO TALK? Reach out to the firm owner, Arleen Garcia-Herbst, directly at arleen@spindriftarchaeology.com, or call direct at 858-333-7202 in CA, 720-907-1640 in CO or 808-376-8965 in HI.

Our Story

Our Approach

Our Inspiration

The Shoresspindrift: sea spray; especially: spray blown from waves during a gale

Spindrift Archaeological Consulting is respectfully named after a regionally significant archaeological site known as the Spindrift Site (CA-SDI-39/17,372, SDMM-W-1),  located just south of popular La Jolla Shores beach and the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. It is a known prehistoric village occupied by the native peoples of San Diego. This site encompasses a large habitation area known to its Kumeyaay inhabitants as Mut kula xuy/Mut lah hoy ya (place of many caves). First recorded by pioneering archaeologist Malcolm Rogers in the 1920s, the Spindrift Site is composed of multiple cultural phases dating back nearly 9,000 years and is representative of the different cultural phases found in the San Diego region, mainly the La Jolla Complex and Late Prehistoric Kumeyaay.

The Spindrift Site area has undergone extensive development due to intensive grading for homes, streets and utilities since it was first recorded. However, the City of San Diego has worked cooperatively with the Kumeyaay and developers to find a sustainable solution for development that both reduces potential impacts to remaining subsurface deposits and efficiently allows development projects to be permitted. It is with acknowledgement of this interdependence and sustainable development practices that Spindrift Archaeological Consulting develops cultural resources compliance strategies for its clients.

Our Story

Meet the Team

Spindrift Archaeological Consulting (Spindrift) is a woman- and minority-owned cultural resources compliance firm. Spindrift provides a wide range of cost-effective environmental consulting services including  inventory surveys, eligibility evaluations, data recovery, construction monitoring, mitigation management, monitoring & compliance, regulatory agency consulting, environmental document section preparation, and agreement documents. Spindrift staff have more than 25 combined years of experience providing environmental regulatory compliance services to public and private sector clients. We have efficiently assisted clients with compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and other federal and state laws and regulations. We pride ourselves on offering top-notch environmental compliance solutions, customer attention and on-time deliverables at a competitive cost.

Spindrift_Arleen_Headshot

Arleen Garcia-Herbst

Owner/Project Manager, Principal Archaeologist & QC Manager

Arleen has more than 12 years of cultural and natural resource management, contract archaeology, and museum curation experience.

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N. Scott Rugh

Principal Paleontologist

Scott has more than 30 years of study of modern and fossil North American Marine invertebrates and worked over 13 years at the San Diego Natural History Museum as collection manager of invertebrate fossils.

Next Steps...

Please let us know if we can help you meet your project success and small business utilization goals. Feel free to contact us to request a quote.