Ecological Evaluations

All too often environmental consulting services are marketed almost exclusively to developers and other professionals in the land use industry, or to landowners who find themselves in regulatory predicaments that demand immediate resolution in place of longer term environmental planning. We strongly believe that ecological evaluation services should be easily available to the average landowner and manager, to anyone who is interested in preserving the environmental integrity of their natural area. We are trained ecologists, physical scientists, and ecological designers who have extensive experience in ecological evaluation. Our mission is to make these types of ecological consulting services more available to the general public. We make ecology understandable to the community, by bringing ecology straight to you.

Homeowners, property owners, property managers, estates, land trusts, not-for-profits, and municipalities. Anyone who owns or manages property with an undeveloped area. Anyone who wants to learn, understand, and identify the environmentally important features about their property and how these features are valuable. Anyone who wants to learn about some of the potential threats to these areas, and who may want strategies or basic land management ideas. Anyone who wants knowledge to effectively steward the natural areas of their property and is looking for professional guidance.

Our services are best suited for properties of four acres or more. However, for wetland delineation services there is no recommended minimal size. If your property is smaller than the recommended four-acre minimum, but you still feel it is unique, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We have the ability to evaluate up to a few hundred acres (or more), and can expand our team to handle larger properties.

A typical evaluation involves several field visits, a preparation of a summary report, and a meeting with the client to discuss findings. In detail: At our initial meeting we discuss general goals the property owner might have. Our experts will then visit the area to identify significant and environmentally important features including major vegetation, dominant ecological trends, and the environmentally important features. We also identify major threats, concerns, and constraints to the health of the landscape. We will then issue a written report on our findings, which includes our recommendations on the best practices and most up-to-date strategies to help you properly steward and preserve the environmental features of your property.

We are also qualified and certified to provide ecologically informed designs of what your property could look like, as an optional next step. We think of ecologically informed design as a type of garden design, the same way some people specialize in Zen gardens or English Romantic gardens. Our staff can provide ecological restoration (re-naturalization) possibilities, conceptual scenarios, and ecological design plans and drawings as requested. We also can provide several scales of ecological mapping, as requested.

The fee usually depends upon the size of the area, but we have the ability to scale our services to provide the most effective work to fit your budget.