Callie Melton
What is the Ottawa Conservation District?
A locally controlled natural resource management district administered by a publicly elected board of directors.
What Does it Do? Provides local support for land and water conservation programs by providing resources to make smart land management decisions in Ottawa County. (ottawacd.org)
How do you vote? Call 616-842-5852 ext. 5 and ask for an Absentee Ballot. Leave a message with your name, address and zip code and a ballot will be mailed to you. You will need to include a copy of your ID with your return ballot. Return it by mail or in person by 4pm March 16th to 16731 Ferris St, Grand Haven, MI 49417 .
Callie lives in Chester Township with her husband, Jerry, and their two children, Naomi and Connor. She was raised in Hudsonville and has lived in Ottawa County most of her life. She is currently attending Grand Valley State for a master’s Public Administration with an emphasis in public management. She is a self-employed Public Relations consultant, her clients have included Guiding Light Ministries and the GVSU Women’s Center.
She recently founded the Crockery Creek Watershed Council, an emerging area of interest for future conservation work. She hopes that the watershed group will bring conservation funding to local farmers, protect local water resources and restore Crockery Lake to health.
Watershed and farming issues became an area of interest for her after she worked with advocates across the state to bring the PFAS pollution crisis to light. Many things were discovered about the many unethical practices that took place, including that local farmers were in the dark about the toxicity of the tannery sludge they were spreading on their fields.
What we know about the environment, our weather and even things that we’ve created- changes all the time. She will continue to work with farmers and landowners to overcome the new and difficult challenges we are facing. She is also committed to working with local and county leadership on providing more conservation services throughout the county, so that we may preserve our natural resources for generations to come.