Tucked away off Highway 49 midway between San Andreas and Mokelumne Hill sits an unassuming warehouse, home to Floating Islands West, the West Coast distributor and manufacturer of BioHaven Floating Islands.
HOW WE CAME TO BE
We are a family business with a love for the outdoors, it is no surprise that our manufacturing facility is in the hills of Calaveras County. Prior to joining the Floating Island International team, we ran a highly successful stone design company which focused on high end xeriscapes, beautiful stone gardens, and water features modeled after nature. Our family has strong ties to the county in which we do business, as this has been our home for nearly 30 years.
Testament to the idea that sometimes timing and serendipity are key, we discovered Floating Islands by chance when a client inquired about a floating island for his koi pond. We had never heard of a “floating island,” but really just wanted to provide the requested product to our client…we did a search online for floating islands and found the inventor, a man by the name of Bruce Kania. At the time, we also had a retail showroom featuring a large selection of products for ponds and water gardens. The floating island concept seemed to a perfect fit for our showroom & client needs. An island that fish can swim under, while at the same time providing a beautiful floating garden and habitat, AND IT CLEANS WATER?! Why hadn’t we heard of this before?! We made contact and weeks later we were on a plane headed to a small town in Montana.
We went to meet with the inventor and his team in Shepherd, Montana, with the intention of learning what we can about this product; we had no idea how involved we would eventually become.
We were just taking care of a client, but we believed in what the floating islands were about and wanted to be a part of making a difference in our environment.``
One thing led to another and we decided to join the team. After learning about the floating islands, it seemed to us like a natural solution to many of the environmental challenges of today. We decided to shift our focus from the stone world (which we love) and focus on this unique opportunity that fate presented. With the floating islands, we are in a position to make a sustainable difference in the world.
Initial Company Goals
- Develop a new market for floating island environmental stewardship within the state of California and eventually working our way up the west coast.
- Make an impact on the environment by reducing landfill waste and making water stewardship more readily accessible.
- Advance research of floating island efficacy in general with a vision of entering specific niche markets in the western states (Salton Sea, Lake Tahoe, etc).
Accomplishments
- Created a West Coast BioHaven® manufacturing facility with the help of the California Department of Resources Recycling & Recovery Grant.
- Within the first year of operation, we manufactured the largest floating island at the time. The 1-acre BioHaven® was purchased by the Army Corps of Engineers and created for the threatened Caspian Tern species. This project was monitored by Oregon State University.
- Developed a new market for the floating treatment wetlands
- Advanced research and engineering of BioHaven® Technology
- Created & Manufactured the 1st ever Bass Spawning Platform for B.A.S.S. Federation (project received Berkeley Conservation Award)
- First to manufacture and sell the Leviathan™ supercharged wetland – used in commercial setting.
- Aligned ourselves with many well respected environmental and non-profit organizations throughout the Western US.
- Worked closely with Universities on the West Coast (California, Oregon, Washington) to further advance research on our product.
- Our islands have been successfully used in applications to help threatened or endangered species such as the Caspian Tern, California Clapper Rail, Canadian Loon, and more.
- Recently manufactured and sold islands to the world’s largest pump manufacturer for use in their corporate graywater system.
- We are the only BioHaven® licensee/manufacturer with the rights to manufacture the mini line of BioHaven® islands (formerly known as “islandscapes”) throughout the US & Canada.
- In 2014, BioHaven® Technology was named a “Top 6 Innovative Water Technology” by the US State Department in Washington DC.
- BioHaven® technology is currently being used in the Gulf of Mexico for coastal restoration and the BP Oil Spill recovery. Our Floating Island International team, Martin Ecosystems, received the Gulf Guardian Award for their amazing work on this.
