GPS and the Enviroment: Louis Licht, President of Ecolotree
Louis Licht, President Ecolotree
Louis-Licht@ecolotree.com

Ecolotree® Inc. grows poplar trees and other plants to accomplish permitted outcomes required by state and federal environmental regulations. Tree roots, soils, and microbes predictably remove nitrogen, phosphorus, fuel, ammunition waste, and other regulated chemicals from contaminated soil and groundwater. Monitoring pollutant removal performance at a site can be tracked using GPS/GIS to display results from soil, water, leaf, tree diameter and color analyses. College graduates hired as interns and employees have been instrumental in creating the maps and data analyses to track landfill closure, spill cleanups, and wastewater treatment. As these analytical and display tools are applied to complex site cleanup, the owners, regulators, consultants and neighbors can understand the performance and trends.

Speaker Bio:
Louis Licht is a farmer who grew up on an Iowa family farm. He currently owns and manages 450 acres of crop and forestlands in Iowa under the name Ecolofarm®. Louis earned his B.S. from Iowa State in 1973 in Education Chemical Engineering, earned his M.S. in Agricultural Engineering from Oregon State in 1978, and his Ph.D. in Civil/Environmental Engineering from the University of Iowa in 1990. Louis' original Ph.D. research work documented effective nitrate removal from non-point agricultural fields to streams by poplar tree root systems. Louis is the Founder and President/CEO Ecolotree® Inc., which is recognized as oldest phytoremediation company in U.S. Louis has two patents which define phytoremediation, relating to plants as a predictable treatment for regulated pollutants, including nitrogen and phosphorus. His past work experiences include: University of Iowa -Adj. Associate Professor/Associate Research Scientist, CH2M Hill - Project Engineer and Manager ‘78 – ‘85,Proctor and Gamble - production manager: ’73 – ’75. E.I.duPont - production engineer, ’69-’72. Louis has received five Consulting Engineers Council state and national awards for innovative projects using poplar trees to treat nitrogen and other pollutants in wastewater or landfill leachate. He was also named Young Engineer of the Year in Oregon 1989-90; Hancher Finkbine Medallion – University of Iowa 1990; Innovative Business Practices in Environmental Enhancement – Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce 1998. He is the Author of 8 peer-reviewed articles, and over 60 conference technical papers, and subject of article in People Magazine May 1999.

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