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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