Banning Ranch Conservancy

MANAGEMENT

CEO/Executive Director

Melanie Schlotterbeck

CEO/Executive Director Experience

Melanie's achievements include: • Being appointed and then reappointed by the California Natural Resources Secretary serve on the 30x30 Partnership Coordinating Committee related to the campaign to protect 30% of the state's natural lands and coastal waters by 2030. • Securing $243.5 million for an innovative Environmental Mitigation Program within the Orange County Transportation Authority’s (OCTA) Renewed Measure M––a ½ cent transportation sales tax. This preserved 1,300 acres and funded the restoration of 350 acres. • Building a conservation coalition to work closely the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) to adopt a six-countywide advance mitigation program policy framework that when implemented is estimated to generate $1B for conservation across the Southland. • Being directly or indirectly involved with the conservation of over 63,000 acres in Southern California and more than 350,0000 acres statewide. • Securing $15 million of public funds for land acquisitions in the Cleveland National Forest and $9.256 million for the Puente-Chino Hills Wildlife Corridor. • Assisting with the creation of seven Resource Management Plans and Fire Management Plans. • Coordinating settlement negotiations for multiple land use projects to resolve litigation with important conservation, public safety, and wildfire reduction benefits. • Authoring first of their kind natural lands policies adopted in local and regional sustainability and planning documents. • Researching, authoring, and designing numerous toolkits to help community activists, decision-makers, policy leaders, and planning staff improve how the public engages with government and understands policies by showcasing cutting edge tools. • Interviewing with multiple TV, radio, and newspapers to increase awareness of conservation, land use, and wildfire issues. • Authoring (or ghostwriting) multiple articles and OpEds for Orange County newspapers. Specialties: land acquisitions, conservation, coalition building, strategy, facilitation, photography, land use, planning, strategy, environment, transportation, infrastructure, parks, event planning, direct mail, marketing, outreach, communications, GIS, and fundraising.

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