Introductory Stewardship Consultation

Whether you're just getting started or looking for a second opinion on an existing restoration project, this one-hour virtual consultation gives you direct access to a Restoration Ecologist. We value this one-hour consultation at $250. Getting started with restoration can feel intimidating, especially if you've never done it before. Drawing on decades of experience, scientific knowledge, and hands-on fieldwork, we'll help you prepare, understand your options, and move forward with greater confidence. We can talk through site preparation, installation, invasive-species control, maintenance, and augmentation of an existing native plant community. We want you to succeed. Supporting your stewardship helps support wildlife and a healthier environment. Sharing what we've learned is one way we give back to the people caring for the land. The booking fee is $25, and you receive the full $25 back as Natural Communities store credit once payment is confirmed. No purchase of plants, seed, or other products is required. We'll discuss your property, your goals, and your biggest challenges while introducing the principles of Fly-Wheel Ecology and how resilient native plant communities can naturally reduce invasive species over time. Who Is This Consultation For? Our specialty is restoring and managing natural areas at the landscape scale. We primarily serve public agencies and private landowners managing properties from several acres to thousands of acres, including parks, preserves, and privately owned prairies, oak woodlands, savannas, and wetlands. Whether you’re managing natural areas within a park system, improving an established woodland, converting agricultural fields to prairie, or controlling invasive species, we help you set priorities, plan implementation, and support long-term ecological health. Smaller properties can also be a fit, typically with at least half an acre of contiguous habitat to restore or manage. That refers to the actual natural area, not total property acreage or several separate planting beds. Properties with both landscaping and natural areas are welcome; our guidance centers on the natural areas. Beauty and habitat can go together. Our specialty is ecological restoration and stewardship; for garden bed design and detailed planting, we recommend a native landscape designer. Your Consultant Nick Fuller | Principal Ecological Officer & Ecological Restoration Consultant 20+ years of expertise in habitat restoration, stormwater compliance, and native plant design across the Chicago region and Midwest. 💳 Your $25 Comes Back as Store Credit Once Shopify confirms your payment, the full $25 consultation fee is issued as Natural Communities store credit. Apply it toward native plants, native seed, trees and shrubs, or future stewardship consulting. How It Works Purchase your consultation through Shopify. The one-time reservation fee is $25. Schedule after checkout. Scheduling is completed through our private Google Calendar appointment page after purchase. Choose your exact appointment. Google Calendar shows the openings that are still available and creates your Google Meet appointment. Meet virtually by Google Meet. Consultations are approximately one hour and conducted audio only. Your $25 becomes store credit once payment is confirmed. Shopify will also notify you when the credit is issued. Typical Appointment Availability Based on our current connected calendars, consultation openings generally fall within these windows: Monday–Thursday: typically at 3:15 PM Central Time Saturdays: appointment blocks are generally available in the morning Additional daytime openings may appear. Exact appointment times vary with existing field work, meetings, and project schedules and are shown in Google Calendar when you schedule. Please have photos, maps, or aerial imagery of your property available if possible. These help us provide more specific recommendations during your consultation. What We'll Discuss Every property is different, but consultations commonly include: Restoration goals Native plant and seed selection Invasive species management Prairie, woodland, and wetland restoration Fly-Wheel Ecology and adaptive management principles Wildlife habitat improvement Next steps and implementation priorities Audio Recording Notice Consultations are conducted through Google Meet and recorded audio only. Recordings help us capture recommendations accurately and may be used for educational or marketing purposes. If you prefer not to be recorded, we're happy to arrange a private, unrecorded consultation for an additional fee. Need Ongoing Stewardship Support? If your project would benefit from in-person site evaluation or recurring adaptive management, you can move into one of our ongoing stewardship programs. Annual Land Stewardship Consulting Professional on-site ecological guidance once per year, plus follow-up support. Quarterly Land Stewardship Consulting Four seasonal site visits with ongoing adaptive ecological guidance for active or complex restoration projects.