The History of Raedeke Associates, Inc.

Retired since 2019, Dr. Ken Raedeke has over 45 years of experience in wildlife and ecological research, environmental impact assessments, and natural areas planning in North and South America and Africa, with specialized expertise in wildlife ecology and management, dynamics of managed wildlife populations, and wildlife habitat assessments.

As a University of Washington Professor from 1979 to 2015, Dr. Raedeke supervised 6 doctoral and 15 master’s students and taught classes in wildlife ecology, range and wildlife habitat management, wildlife population dynamics, forest management and ecology, and streamside ecology, and was the co-founder of the Center for Streamside Studies.

Ken has authored more than 100 wildlife research publications in professional journals, books, and scientific proceedings. He has conducted inventories and population assessments of deer, elk, mountain goat, black bear, bighorn sheep, heron colonies, and other wildlife populations in the Pacific Northwest, Canada, South America, and Africa for local governments, state and federal agencies, tribes, and national and international non-governmental organizations (NGO’s). He conducted an evaluation of the entire parks and wildlife management program of the Kenyan Wildlife Service with a World Bank team.

Ken has been an invited speaker at over 40 regional, national, and international scientific conferences and educational seminars. He served as a reviewer of scientific publications for over ten scientific journals, and research proposals and grant applications for the National Science Foundation, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and other regional and national agencies.



Dr. Raedeke started Raedeke Associates out of his home in 1979 after seeing the need and opportunity to provide science-based evaluations of natural resource issues for public and private projects. The company grew with the evolving regulation of wetlands and streams as Waters of the U.S. at the federal level and by local and state governments in the context of economic growth and development in the Puget Sound region. From the beginning, the company’s approach has been to retain technically qualified staff to provide superior quality service to our clients with enthusiasm, resourcefulness, and integrity.

As the need grew, the company moved from its first small office in the Fremont area of Seattle to a converted house in Wallingford, then to our own office building in the Sand Point area near Magnusson Park for about 20 years. In response to challenges during and after the great recession, the company moved to the Lichton Springs area of north Seattle in 2011 and is currently located in the Northgate area.

Initially owned and operated as a family business, the company was incorporated in 1991 as a Subchapter S corporation in Washington State. In 2005, Ken offered key employees the opportunity to buy into the company and share in guiding the company into the future. Today the company is entirely employee owned.

Although we have always provided services on a mix of public and private projects, for much of our history, the vast majority of our work focused on projects for private clients, including private landowners, developers, and the forest and mineral products industries. These have included wetlands and plants and animals investigations as part of environmental impact statements for several large master planned developments in the region, golf courses, as well as resource inventory and monitoring, and wildlife management plans. Our clients have also included government agencies, public utilities, tribes, conservation and environmental groups, and school districts. In recent years we have expanded our base of clients and services to include third-party consulting for several local jurisdictions, permitting for county parks and public utilities projects, and construction observation, permitting, and environmental compliance for transit agencies.