About us

FHS was founded on the core values of professionalism, innovation, and
reliability.We seek to provide innovative and state-of-the-art solutions to hydrologic and

geospatial problems.

Our Visionary Leaders

Tara Follum

Owner, CEO

Tara is trained as a Registered Nurse and has a Doctorate in Nursing Practice. Through her experience assisting in the development and implementation of multiple programs for hospitals, she honed her business administration and project management skills. Although the medical field remains a passion, her keen interest/capabilities in accounting and management have led her to take the lead role in business operations for FHS.

Mike Follum, PE, PhD

Owner, COO, Principal Engineer

Over the past 14 years Mike has been able to work on several Military and Civil Works projects related to hydrology and hydraulics. His interests include cold region hydrology, continental-scale flow and flood inundation modeling, water operations, water availability, dam safety, simulation of flows and flooding in remote regions, use of hydrologic data within mobility/bridge analysis, and rapid response hydrologic models.

After graduating from the University of Wyoming (BS/MS), Mike went to work for the U.S. Army Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory in Vicksburg, MS. He was able to work on large-scale projects both within the United States as well as abroad for the Military. While still working at the Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory, Mike was able to go back to school and complete a PhD in Civil Engineering at Colorado State University.

After 10 years in Mississippi, Mike decided to move back to Wyoming and take a job with the Wyoming Area Office of the Bureau of Reclamation. Mike began as a Civil Engineer and soon moved-up to the Supervisor role, overseeing both water operations and civil works (dam safety, facility inspections, etc.).

After 2 years with Reclamation, Mike decided to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning his own business. Starting part-time in August 2021, Mike and Tara, started Follum Hydrologic Solutions, LLC (FHS). In January 2022 Mike transitioned to full-time with FHS.

B.S. in Civil Engineering, University of Wyoming,
Dec 2007

M.S. in Civil Engineering, University of Wyoming,
May 2009

Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, Colorado State University,
Dec 2018

Professional Engineer, PE 20748 (Mississippi)

Supervisory Civil Engineer Mar 2020 - Dec 2021

Water and Civil Works Branch, Wyoming Area Office of Bureau of Reclamation
Civil Engineer Aug 2019 - Mar 2020

Water and Civil Works Branch, Wyoming Area Office of Bureau of Reclamation
Research Hydraulic Engineer 2009 - 2019

▪ U.S. Army Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory
Graduate Research Assistant 2007 - 2009

▪ University of Wyoming, College of Engineering

List of Publications:

Praskievicz, S., Carter, S., Dhondia, J., Follum, M. (2020) “Flood-inundation modeling in an operational context: Sensitivity to topographic resolution and Manning’s n”, Journal of Hydroinformatics, 22(5), 1338-1350.
Follum, M. et al. (2020). “Improved Accuracy and Efficiency of Flood Inundation Mapping of Low-, Medium-, and High-Flow Events Using the AutoRoute Model”. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-2019-180.
Gutenson, J., Tavakoly, A., Wahl, M., Follum, M. (2020). “Comparison of generalized non-data-driven lake and reservoir routing models for global-scale hydrologic forecasting of reservoir outflow at diurnal time steps”. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 24(5), 2711-2729.
Follum, M. et al. (2019). “A comparison of snowmelt‐derived streamflow from temperature‐index and modified‐temperature‐index snow models”. Hydrological Processes. 1– 16. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.13545
Follum, M. et al. (2019). “Utilizing Simple Large-Scale Flood Models to Prioritize Deployment of HEC-RAS 2D Models: Case Study of Navajo Nation Flood Inundation Maps”. Flood Risk Management Newsletter, 12, 4–7.
Rajib, A., Liu, Z., Merwade, V., Tavakoly, A.A., Follum, M.L. (2019). “Towards a large-scale locally relevant flood inundation modeling framework using SWAT and LISFLOOD-FP”. Journal of Hydrology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.124406.
Follum, M. et al. (2018). “Rapid Flood Inundation Modelling”. The Military Engineer, July-August Issue, 110 (715):37-38.
Afshari, S., A.A. Tavakoly, A. Rajib, X. Zheng, M. Follum, E. Omranian, B.M. Fekete (2018). “Comparison of new generation low-complexity flood inundation mapping tools with a hydrodynamic model”, Journal of Hydrology.
Follum, M. et al. (2018). “A simple temperature-based method to estimate heterogeneous frozen ground within a distributed watershed model”. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2017-345
Follum, M. et al. (2018). “Rapid flood inundation modeling, an application for Hurricane Maria”. The Military Engineer, July-August 2018 Issue.
Follum, M., et al. (2016). “AutoRAPID: A Model for Prompt Streamflow Estimation and Flood Inundation Mapping over Regional to Continental Extents”. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA). DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12476.
Follum, M.L., E.M. Yeates, A.D. Snow, and A.A. Tavakoly (2016). “Flow Simulation in the Sava River Basin using an Open-Source Model”. Conference Paper at Crisis Management and Disaster Response Annual Conference, Sofia, Bulgaria, June 2016.
Tavakoly, A.A., A.D. Snow, C.H. David, M. Follum, D.R. Maidment, Z-L. Yang (2016). “Continental-Scale River Flow Modeling of the Mississippi River Basin Using High-Resolution NHDPlus Dataset”. JAWRA, 1-22. DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12456.
Wahl, M., M. Follum, A. Snow, A. Tavakoly (2016). “Developing Hydrologic Awareness”. The Military Engineer (700): 65-66.
Follum, M. et al. (2015). “A radiation-derived temperature-index snow routine for the GSSHA hydrologic model”. Journal of Hydrology, 529: 723-736. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.08.044.
Follum, M. (2015). “Automated method to develop a Clark synthetic unit hydrograph within ArcGIS”. Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory Technical Report ERDC/CHL CHETN-IV-104. U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS.
Follum, M. and C. Downer (2013). “Snow Water Equivalent Modeling Capabilities of the GSSHA Watershed Model”. Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory Technical Report ERDC/CHL TR-13-4. U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS.
Follum, M. (2013). “AutoRoute Rapid Flood Inundation Model”. Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory Technical Note ERDC/CHL CHETN-XI-16. U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. Vicksburg, MS.
McKinley, G., M. Follum, M. Jourdan, G. Mason, C. LaHatte, and J. Ellis (2012). “A Route Corridor Flood Vulnerability System”. Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory Technical Report TR-12-29. U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. Vicksburg, MS.
Tavakoly, A. A., David, C. H., Gutenson, J. L., Wahl, M., & Follum, M. (2023). Development of non-data driven reservoir routing in the routing application for parallel computatIon of discharge (RAPID) model. Environmental Modelling & Software, 105631.
Tavakoly, A. A., Gutenson, J. L., Lewis, J. W., Follum, M. L., Rajib, A., LaHatte, W. C., & Hamilton, C. O. (2021). Direct integration of numerous dams and reservoirs outflow in continental scale hydrologic modeling. Water Resources Research, 57(9), e2020WR029544.
Gutenson, J. L., Tavakoly, A. A., Wahl, M. D., & Follum, M. L. (2020). Comparison of generalized non-data-driven lake and reservoir routing models for global-scale hydrologic forecasting of reservoir outflow at diurnal time steps. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 24(5), 2711-2729.