Most land stewardship support is structured around individual projects with a clear scope, timeline, and hourly or fixed project fees. While this approach is typically the most practical for short-term or one-time exchanges, stewardship does not fall into that category.

Similar to using dieting or exercise to lose weight, periods of action can generate obvious impacts that could be interpreted as success but ultimately amount to nothing without continuity. This is the pattern we see repeated in stewardship. Even the most well intended and perfectly executed practices turn out to be a waste of money and effort whenever follow-through is lacking, which unfortunately is more often than not.

At NatureWorks, we solve this problem by serving landowners through ongoing partnerships that are custom tailored to each landowner and property we serve. This long-term, landowner-focused approach allows decisions to be shaped by accumulated knowledge, changing conditions, and a clear understanding of both the land and the people who live with it.

This approach enables landowners we serve get a return on their investment over decades rather than a season or two.

A different approach to Natural Area Stewardship

  1. Stewardship shaped around your land and your life
    Your goals, your capacity, your interests, and your family’s involvement matter. Good stewardship is not imposed as a rigid prescription—it is shaped over time to fit both the land and the landowner.

  2. Ongoing support as conditions change
    Weather patterns, invasive pressures, and personal availability all change over time in ways that can be difficult to predict. A partnership allows stewardship to respond without starting over or renegotiating scope each time circumstances evolve.

  3. Predictable costs, better decisions
    Flat annual fees are developed based on your desired support and budget. This ensures you have the support you need at a budget that feels responsible. It allows us to focus on how to best serve you and your land, not lining up the next billable task.

  4. Continuity in people and perspective
    Working with the same professionals year after year builds context. That continuity leads to better timing, clearer expectations, fewer mistakes, more efficient progress, and a deeper long-term connection between people and the land.

  5. Appropriate attention, by design
    We are careful about the number of partnerships we enter to ensure we are able to deliver level of attention and follow-through that is needed for each partnership to be a success.

  6. Local expertise
    Based in the heart of the Driftless Area, we live our lives enjoying and working within these landscapes. Our understanding of local plants and wildlife comes from both formalized education as well as years of living on, working with, and learning from local natural areas.

  7. An accountable partner
    When stewardship efforts don’t go as planned, you are not left carrying the responsibility alone. We share it, learn from it, and help navigate what comes next.

The partnership difference

This partnership approach is often a good fit for landowners who:

  • Prioritize health of the “whole system”, rather than a few select species

  • Want to ensure access to ongoing support as their life and land change

  • Hope for continuity or connection with their property’s caretakers

  • Want an accountable partner if things go awry

  • Value outcomes, judgment, and foresight above mere labor

  • Desire the benefits of stewardship without the stress of self-reliance

  • Are thinking in decades, not seasons

Who this approach tends to fit

We are generally not a good fit for those seeking short-term assistance, one-time projects, lowest-bid work, or rapid transformation without continued involvement.

Applying does not commit you to a partnership. There is no application fee, no obligation to proceed, and no penalty for deciding it is not the right fit. Our partnerships are built on mutual support and shared benefit—not binding contracts or withdrawal penalties.

Zero Risk to Apply

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Before stepping foot on the land, we start by getting to know you—why you own the property, how you use it, what you care about, and what concerns or uncertainties you carry. Starting with the landowner prevents us from imposing preferences, assumptions, or habits shaped by our training before understanding what actually matters to the people we serve.

Once that foundation is clear, we begin reading the land itself. We look at soils, plant communities, disturbance history, and current wildlife dynamics—whether that means game species, rare species, or the broader food web. Our aim is to understand what is already happening, where the land has momentum, and where it is under strain. The goal is to find where your values and the land’s capacities genuinely align.

Getting Started

  • Understanding the landowner first, before forming management opinions

  • Targeting clear outcomes that benefit you and your land

  • Reducing uncertainty around management decisions and ongoing costs

  • Matching effort to payoff, so stewardship supports your life rather than complicates it

  • Taking a long view, to ensure short-term gains do not come at the expense of your land’s long-term trajectory.

Sometimes the right next step is active management. Sometimes it’s restraint, adjustment, or waiting. In all cases, we’re clear about why—and what to expect over time.

This approach builds properties that improve steadily, feel more predictable to live with, and reflect both the realities of the land and the values of the people who own it.

Our process is designed around:

Get Started

  • We approach stewardship as an ongoing relationship rather than a sequence of individual projects. Partnership allows shared values, mutual trust, and a long-term stewardship vision to take root—something that cannot be built through repeated negotiations for one-time work. For landowners who care deeply about their land, this continuity is what makes thoughtful, enduring stewardship possible.

  • No. Partnerships are built on mutual support and alignment, not binding long-term contracts or withdrawal penalties.

  • That’s very common, which is why early stages of partnership typically focus on observation, clarification, and alignment rather than immediate action, particularly where uncertainty exists.

    Many landowners come to us with questions rather than clear goals. Part of our work is helping clarify what you value, what the land is capable of supporting, and what paths forward are realistic over time.

    You don’t need to have all the answers before starting. That’s part of what the partnership is for.

  • Yes. Many partnerships are built around shared involvement. The goal is not to replace your relationship with the land, but to support it in a way that remains rewarding and sustainable over time.

  • Change over time is inevitable. As long as a shared commitment to stewardship remains in place, partnerships are designed to adapt as circumstances on your land and in your life shift through time.

  • Yes. Ongoing stewardship partnerships are the primary way we provide on-the-ground assistance, guidance, and implementation.

  • Most partnership programs focused on natural area stewardship are offered through government or non-profit organizations, which each have specific goals that may or may not align with your own.

    As a private company focused on serving private landowners, our partnerships are built to serve your needs, with or without any third-party involvement.

  • No. Fit is determined less by acreage and more by goals, complexity, and the desire for thoughtful, long-term stewardship.

Frequently Asked Questions