CalERBA Leadership

CalERBA Board President

Regional Director, Western Region, Westervelt Ecological Services

Hal Holland oversees the strategic and daily operations of Westervelt Ecological Service’s largest region in terms of projects, staff, and revenue. He is responsible for the development of mitigation and conservation projects, business development, sales, project compliance, and long-term land stewardship. In this role, Mr. Holland oversees a team of industry-leading experts in the realms of mitigation banking, land acquisition and valuation, ecology, habitat restoration and construction, regulatory permitting, and land management. Since the inception of Westervelt in 2006, he has directly led or facilitated the development and operation of all 12 mitigation banks approved in the Western region. He continues to serve as the lead Program Manager for large turnkey mitigation projects. He has extensive experience with banking documents (e.g., prospectus and mitigation banking instrument), policy, and Interagency Review Team approval processing; as such, he has contributed to California banking legislation, interagency banking templates, and new crediting models.

Prior to joining Westervelt, Mr. Holland worked for a leading mitigation banking firm as the conservation group leader, and also spent 5 years with EDAW, a national environmental consulting firm, as a project manager, biologist, and CEQA compliance specialist. He received his bachelors in Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution from the University of California, San Diego. Mr. Holland has been active in The Wildlife Society for the last decade, serving as the president and Western Section representative for the Sacramento-Shasta chapter.

CalERBA Board Vice President

Chief Strategic Officer, Natural Resources Group

Skip Moss is the Chief Strategic Officer for Natural Resources Group, Inc. (NRG) and serves as President of NRG’s Mitigation & Conservation Division. He is a professional biologist with over twenty years of experience in the fields of mitigation planning and development, land management and ecological consulting. Skip has entitled thirty conservation banks and custom mitigation projects, resulting in the permanent protection of over 30,000 acres of endangered species and wetland habitat. Skip works collaboratively with the wetland and wildlife regulatory agencies to create mitigation and conservation projects that fulfill recovery goals.  Skip has worked extensively with a variety of public and private sector clients to develop mitigation projects that fulfill permit requirements or build value on existing land holdings. Skip has broad expertise in both the development of conservation easements between private landowners and non-profit groups and in the calculation of endowments for the perpetual management of habitat preserves. 

CalERBA Board Member

Assistant Director of Operations, Ecosystem Investment Partners

Stephanie acts as an Assistant Director of Operations at Ecosystem Investment Partners.  She has a background in ecology and over 13 years of experience in the environmental industry. Stephanie is professionally recognized as a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner, a Professional Wetland Scientist, and Trainer of the California Rapid Assessment Method.
At Ecosystem Investment Partners, Stephanie manages large-scale restoration projects across a variety of ecosystems in California and throughout the western and southern US.  She oversees the evolution of complex projects through their successful execution, including implementation of baseline assessments, outreach with relevant stakeholders, design development, procurement of necessary project entitlements, construction, and adaptive monitoring.  

CalERBA Board Member

Partner, Mitchell Chadwick

Braiden’s clients include Fortune 500 companies with business interests in California, including commercial, residential, agricultural, and industrial businesses.  His representation regularly includes appearances before local, regional, state and federal administrative agencies in connection with use permits and other entitlements. He handles all aspects of environmental compliance under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), land-use permitting and any resulting litigation. His permitting work extends from California’s largest ski resorts, to residential developers, oil gas and energy companies, wineries, agricultural entities, landfills, mitigation/conservation banks, high-speed rail, and mining companies.

As one of the state’s most knowledgeable authorities on mitigation/conservation banking, Braiden is consistently on the faculty for legal and industry conferences on cutting-edge banking issues. The key to his success is working closely with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Army Corps of Engineers to entitle mitigation banks throughout California.  This work is highly specialized, and includes in-depth title examination, negotiation with landowners, cities, Counties, and State and federal agencies to resolve conflicts with mineral rights, endangered species, jurisdictional waters, traditional land-use laws, and helping create crediting methodologies used by administrative agencies.  He understands both the regulatory risks as well as the business interests driving his client’s projects.  His professional working relationships with agency staff and counsel, as well as his unparalleled experience in this area of the law, makes Braiden uniquely suited to help his clients get their projects approved quickly and economically.

CalERBA Board Member

Vice President, Properties and Land Development, Vulcan Materials Company, Western Division

Michael Linton has an extensive background in corporate finance and for over 20 years he has been responsible for managing Vulcan's real estate portfolio throughout the state of California.  He has reclaimed old mining sites into restored natural habitats, productive farmland, and water recharge facilities.  Capitalizing on the company's land reclamation experience he has headed Vulcan's efforts into land conservation, mitigation banking and water conservation as a standalone business activity.

CalERBA Board Member

Sr. Principal Restoration Ecologist, Environmental Science Associates

Melissa Denena brings more than 20 years of experience wearing many different hats within the realm of the environmental consulting and operating field. In recent years, she has been solely focused on mitigation/ conservation banking and turnkey or PRM solutions. Melissa brings a unique understanding of the entire life of a mitigation project, including the real estate side of the equation, which means she can review a project’s mitigation needs and consult on the right location or avenue the client should take.

She applies her technical foundation and experience throughout the United States in wetland delineations, environmental impact assessments, regulatory permitting, and agency consultations, to develop and implement habitat restoration, enhancement, preservation, and adaptive management plans, and brings a wealth of experience in the technical design and real estate aspects of establishing conservation lands, both for voluntary and compensatory mitigation purposes.

Projects she leads entail planning the mitigation from start to finish which involves working closely with her clients, analyzing the mitigation solution options, scoping the chosen solution, and securing the various pieces of the solution from land, surveys, documentation, permits, restoration, easements, etc.  She also has direct experience leading major private and public mitigation and restoration opportunities for key clients in California and the Northwest.

CalERBA Executive Director

SJohnson@ecologicalrestoration.org 

Sara Johnson is the Executive Director of the California Ecological Restoration Business Association. She is an attorney with a background in and passion for conservation and economic solutions to public environmental issues. Prior to her position with CalERBA, 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.  She also represents the national industry as Executive Director of the Ecological Restoration Business Association.