Rae Lynn Schneider
I am Rae Lynn Schneider, President of Integrated Environmental Solutions, LLC. (IES) and Managing Director of Mitigation Futures Conservancy (MFC).
IES is a woman-owned small disadvantaged business enterprise located in at the historic Cotton Mill in McKinney, Texas. McKinney is located in the northern section of the Dallas-Fort Worth (D/FW) Metroplex and is one of the fastest growing communities in the nation. McKinney was ranked as the #1 best place to live by Money Magazine in 2014.
IES provides professional environmental consulting to multiple private industries, local municipalities, and state and federal government agencies. IES was founded in 2003 and has become one of the leaders in permitting for waters of the United States within the D/FW Metroplex. We are becoming a growing presence for cultural resources assessments, protected species assessments for regionally and locally rare and endangered species, and for long-term land management planning, including wildlife conservation. IES is a sponsoring organization for the MFC, a land trust specifically holding conservation easement for mitigation sites in the State of Texas. MFC is a purely volunteer sourced organization that aims to ensure the long-term value of urban mitigation sites associated with Section 404 permits and habitat conservation areas.
My academic background is in natural resources economics and management. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Rangeland Ecology and Management from Texas A&M University and a Master in Public Policy from the John K. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Professionally, I have provided project management services for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation for the General Services Administration (GSA), the U.S. Air Force (USAF), the U.S. Army, the Texas Army National Guard (TxARNG), the U.S. Navy (USN), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). My technical specialization is socioeconomics, environmental justice, and Section 404 permitting including Alternative Analyses. I have been in the environmental consulting field since 2008.
Personally, I have been married for almost 20 years to Rudi Reinecke; we have two children and one dog. Gunnar is in the third grade at McKinney Christian Academy and Jocelyn is a toddler enrolled at The Prep School in McKinney. We are actively involved members at Christ Fellowship in McKinney.
I grew up in the Texas Hill Country in Comfort, Texas on Ring Mountain Ranch where we raised cattle, sheep, angora goats, and had an active whitetail deer lease. I was active in both 4-H and FFA starting at a young age through high school in Range Plant Identification, Wool and Mohair Judging, Livestock Judging, Parliamentary Procedures, and other avenues. Through FFA I received a full scholarship from the San Antonio Rodeo Foundation, which funded my education at Texas A&M University. Following those agricultural roots, we have a small hay operation in Grayson County.
My hobbies include reading, sewing, small crafting, cooking, archery, continually collecting and sorting Lego bricks off floors, being the continual target of Nerf dart ambush, squeaky toy retrieval, chief cook and bottle-washer, and chasing around two busy kids and my husband. I’m a football/basketball/archery Mom and love Disney Cruise Lines.
Mitigation Futures Conservancy was formed by environmental professionals that have observed the redistribution of valuable resources from within the overall landscape to large-scale mitigation sites over the last ten years. Mitigation Futures Conservancy is staffed purely by volunteer environmental professionals, all with extensive experience throughout the Texas ecosystems. 
Our Focus – Is to assist developers with small mitigation sites to provide long term monitoring and protection, which benefits the economics of area through development, as well as maintaining and enhancing small pockets of urban wildlife and water quality areas.
Mitigation Futures Conservancy was established by environmental professionals that realize the value of smaller mitigation sites. Small mitigation sites provide significant values to the overall ecosystem that cannot be forgotten. These small sites, although they usually provide reduced functions than that of a larger site, do provide incremental ecosystem functions to the ever diminishing naturally functioning systems. Our focus is to provide an opportunity for protection of these sites so that they will not be lost.
Our vision is to provide protection for mitigation sites throughout Texas, regardless of size. Our conservation easements can provide long-term protection for habitat, unique and rare plant communities or assemblages of plant communities, and mitigation sites. There are many types of mitigation sites and Mitigation Futures Conservancy works with the lead Federal and State agencies to provide the necessary long-term protection and monitoring to demonstrate that the mitigation site is maintaining the desired ecosystem functions.
