Long-Term Management at Mitigation Sites: Overview & Best Practices Part II
Held Tuesday, March 4, 2025 - 3:00-4:30 p.m. EST
INTRODUCTION
- Ian Grosfelt, National Association of Wetland Managers [Presentation PDF]
MODERATOR
- Sara Johnson, Ecological Restoration Business Association (ERBA)
PRESENTERS [Presentation - PDF]
- Greg DeYoung, Westervelt Ecological Services
- Matt Gause, Westervelt Ecological Services
- Merrill Chester Gregg, Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation
- Steven Martin, Mitigation Specialist, PWS
- Eric Olsen, Gunster
- Stephanie Tom Coupe, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
BIOS
Sara Johnson is the Executive Director of the Ecological Restoration Business Association (ERBA). She is an attorney with a background in and passion for solutions to public environmental challenges that blend conservation and economic goals. Through her role with ERBA she advocates for policies that support environmental markets, including opportunities for mitigation, and convenes mitigation providers and agency partners. Prior to her position with ERBA, Johnson worked in the environmental compliance office of Patuxent River Naval Air Station on the Chesapeake Bay and as a law clerk with the Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division in Washington, D.C. Johnson holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Richmond and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia, where she served as the Articles Development Editor of the Virginia Environmental Law Journal. She is licensed to practice law in Virginia and California.
Steven Martin has 35 years of experience with compensatory mitigation, mitigation policy, and evaluation of mitigation projects. He has assisted non-profits and the private sector. He co-authored EPA’s mitigation bank and In-Lieu Fee Program review workbooks and checklists. He collaborated with ERBA and EPIC on quantitative and qualitative analyses of mitigation bank approvals. He is working with 2 ILF programs, the Coastal Virginia Conservancy and the Florida Keys Restoration Fund. He retired from the Corps’ Institute for Water Resources (IWR) as a mitigation specialist. He helped implement and administer RIBITS, taught compensatory mitigation policy and practices and helped developed guides to improve compensatory mitigation.
Stephanie Tom Coupe is Senior Director of NFWF’s IDEA department, which receives and administers funds designated for the benefit of specific natural resources that arise from legal and regulatory proceedings. Prior to joining NFWF, Stephanie was a deputy director for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, where she also served as a lawyer within the Office of General Counsel and graduated from the fish and game warden academy. Stephanie also worked in the Washington, DC Office of the California Governor on natural resources issues. Stephanie received her B.A. from the University of California at Davis and her J.D. from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law.
Greg DeYoung is a co-founder of Westervelt Ecological Services. Greg has four decades of experience in planning, environmental review, wetland mitigation, and endangered species conservation. His background includes the permitting of mitigation and conservation banks and large-scale mitigation projects in the West, the Rocky Mountains, and the Southeast. He is Vice President Emeritus, Westervelt Ecological Services, and also currently serves as Past President of the Ecological Restoration Business Association (ERBA). Greg has been a director for three non-profit conservation organizations: The Nevada County Land Trust, the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, and the Whitney Oaks Wetland Conservancy. Mr. DeYoung holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). 
Merrill Gregg is the Director of Investments and Special Projects at Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation based in Dallas where she has worked for the past nine years. In this role, Merrill focuses on land protection, developing innovative conservation finance models, and leads oversight of the Foundation’s investment portfolio and mitigation bank endowments. Merrill also consults private foundations on conservation initiatives and is an active volunteer with park-focused organizations. Merrill serves on the board of Streams & Valleys and is an advisor for Good Natured, Mayor Mattie Parker’s effort to expand greenspace in Fort Worth, one of the fastest growing cities in the US. Merrill previously served on the board and finance committee of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, a joint Canada-U.S. nonprofit organization that works to protect one of the last intact mountain ecosystems left on Earth. Before her career in the nonprofit sector, Merrill worked in the investment banking industry in New York City and Hong Kong. She holds an AB in History and American Studies from Princeton University. 
Matt Gause is the Director of Operations for Westervelt Ecological Services and oversees land stewardship and ecological resource management on over 20,000 acres of conserved mitigation land across more than a dozen states in the US. Mr Gause is a restoration ecologist and botanist and has over thirty years of direct experience with habitat restoration, conservation, and long-term land stewardship of conserved lands. Prior to his current position Mr. Gause served as the Director of Land Stewardship and Ecological Resources for Westervelt.
Long-Term Management at Mitigation Sites: Overview & Best Practices Part I
Held Tuesday, February 11, 2025 - 3:00-4:30 p.m. EST
INTRODUCTION
- Ian Grosfelt, National Association of Wetland Managers [Presentation PDF]
PRESENTERS [Presentation PDF]
- Sara Johnson, Ecological Restoration Business Association
- Matt Gause, Westervelt
- Ken Powell, Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources
- Michelle Mattson, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
ABSTRACTS
Matt Gause
In part I of the LTM webinar Mr. Gause will be discussing the contents of a Long-term Management Plan and best practices for arranging for long-term stewardship at a mitigation site. In Part II Mr. Gause will be describing a method that can be used to estimate and arrive at an initial funding amount for the long-term stewardship fund (Endowment).
Michell Mattson
The presentation will provide an overview of the requirements of the Corps’ and EPA 2008 Mitigation Rule and USFWS 2003 Conservation Bank Guidelines as they relate to aspects of long-term management (LTM) planning; the Why, What, When and Who of LTM of compensatory mitigation sites, including the importance of LTM planning to sustain target ecosystem functions and services and the potential risks of not adequately providing LTM.
Ken Powell
Ken will be describing key aspects of long-term management and monitoring associated with wetland banks in Minnesota under the state’s Wetland Conservation Act including the state’s long-term stewardship fund.
BIOS
Matt Gause is the Director of Operations for Westervelt Ecological Services and oversees land stewardship and ecological resource management on over 20,000 acres of conserved mitigation land across more than a dozen states in the US. Mr. Gause is a restoration ecologist and botanist and has over thirty years of direct experience with habitat restoration, conservation, and long-term land stewardship of conserved lands. Prior to his current position Mr. Gause served as the Director of Land Stewardship and Ecological Resources for Westervelt.
Ken Powell supervises Minnesota’s primary wetland regulatory program, the Minnesota Wetland Conservation Act. Ken is a professional wetland scientist and certified wildlife biologist with 30 years of experience working with wetlands in Minnesota and the upper Midwest.
Michelle Lee Mattson is an ecologist with over 25 years of professional experience in ecosystem restoration, site assessment, and regulatory compliance as a consultant and Corps' regulator. Michelle is a compensatory mitigation subject matter expert (SME) for the Corps’ Institute for Water Resources (IWR) Regulatory Team supporting national and regional training courses. She has spent her career in the field working with restoration teams to design, install and monitor restoration projects and programs including developing mitigation banks and in-lieu fee programs. Michelle is also part of the Sustainable Rivers Program (SRP) tram, a partnership between the Corps and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to provide funding to Corps’ Districts to evaluate, test, and implement operational changes at existing infrastructure to improve environmental responses.
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