Annual Land Stewardship Consulting | Ecological Consulting Services
Annual Land Stewardship Consulting | Ecological Consulting Services
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Natural Communities offers annual land stewardship consulting for landowners and organizations seeking expert ecological guidance without intensive oversight. This service provides a once-per-year, on-site ecological evaluation designed to establish priorities, identify risks early, and guide long-term restoration success.
This tier is ideal for properties entering restoration, invasive management, or native habitat enhancement.
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.
💳 $100 Store Credit Included
$100 of your consulting fee is applied as store credit toward native plants and seed in our online store — putting your investment directly back into your land.
Annual Land Stewardship Consulting
The "Manual" for your property's success.
Moving beyond basic land management requires a shift from reactive "weed-pulling" to systemic restoration. Tier 1 annual land stewardship consulting is designed for the DIY-minded landowner or organization seeking expert ecological site evaluation and restoration guidance.
This tier provides an annual on-site consultation with a Restoration Ecologist to assess your property's condition, pinpoint priority actions, help build resilient native systems and set the tactical roadmap for the coming seasons.
What is Included:
- Annual On-Site Coaching: One (1) approximately 60-minute site walk-through with our Principal Ecological Officer to identify systemic issues and biological opportunities.
- Adaptive Strategy: We inspect the progress of previous years and provide updated recommendations to skip costly trial-and-error.
- Tactical Specification: Expert guidance on invasive species removal priorities, site diversity, and "fueling" the land with the correct native profiles.
- Post-Visit Documentation: You will receive consultation notes detailing practical next steps that you or your contractors can implement immediately.
- Ongoing Access: Includes one (1) follow-up one hour phone consultations per year to answer implementation questions.
- $100 Native Plant & Seed Store Credit: $100 of your fee is applied as store credit toward native plants and seed in our online store.
Ideal For: Landowners who have purchased seed/plants and want to ensure their implementation strategy is sound.
We provide on-site ecological consultation within a 60-minute radius of Algonquin and Wheaton, Illinois.
Our primary service region encompasses Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, defined by the following boundaries:
- North: Lake Geneva, WI – Gurnee – Antioch
- West: Rockford – Belvidere – DeKalb – Rochelle
- South: Joliet – Morris – Plainfield – Naperville
- East: Chicago (Northwest & West) – North Shore – Oak Brook
Key Counties Served: McHenry, Kane, DuPage, Lake, Boone, Winnebago, Kendall, Will, and Cook.
Note: Projects outside this primary radius are considered on a case-by-case basis depending on acreage and ecological scope.
Need More—or Less—Support?
Not every property requires the same level of ecological guidance. Choose the option that best fits your project.
Introductory Stewardship Consultation
A one-hour virtual audio consultation to discuss your property, restoration goals, and next steps.
$25 — fully applicable as store credit toward a future purchase.
Book an Introductory Consultation
Quarterly Stewardship Consulting
Need more active oversight? Get four seasonal site visits throughout the year with adaptive ecological guidance as your property changes.
$1,200 one-time | $995 subscription
Includes a $250 native plant & seed store credit.
Explore Quarterly Stewardship
Plant Shipping & Care
Plant Shipping & Care
We want to ensure that our customers get what they want, a native backyard oasis. To do that, we need to follow a few simple guidelines and give you some information and pointers to make sure you get your plants delivered in a healthy state.
As a reminder, you will receive an email to confirm your pickup or shipping window just before the plants are ready. See Order Fulfillment below for seasonal fulfillment windows.
Choices to Receive Your Plants & Accessories
- Website orders: Seed, plugs and bare-root plants offered for shipping are shipped to your address. Shipping charges are calculated at checkout.
- Container trees and shrubs: Some #3 and #5 container options are offered for scheduled pickup only. Check the selected product option and the cart pickup instructions before ordering. Pickup and shipped items require separate orders where indicated in the cart.
- Wholesale orders: Delivery and pickup are arranged separately according to the order, supplier yard and location. Wholesale pickup is free.
- Pickup locations and dates are confirmed by email. Please wait for confirmation before traveling to a pickup site. Our offices are not retail stores or nursery pickup locations.
Order Fulfilment - When Your Plants or Other Items Will Be Ready
We take orders all year long and seed is shipped all year, but we only provide the plants to you in certain fulfillment windows to ensure healthy plants.
Wholesale Orders
- Shipped or are Ready For Pick Up As Requested.
Retail & Website Orders
- Seed Typically Ships Out Within One Week Of Order All Year Long
- Typically, single species flats ship when ready, sometimes as soon as early to mid-April (depends on weather) through early-October.
- Mixed species kits are batched and shipped as indicated on the product page.
- If a plant order is placed while outside of the plant fulfillment window your plants will be reserved through your payment, however, the order will not be fulfilled and shipped until the following spring. We don't want to provide you plants when they won't be happy during the cold winter months.
- Early in the spring and later in the fall certain species may be dormant or partially dormant with brown leaves, however they will return to grow healthy next growing season.
- Your order may arrive in several different shipments.
- If certain plants within an order will not be available until a later date, we may choose to hold the full order until all are ready. In certain circumstances, we may choose to send them in two separate shipments
- Fulfillment is always dependent upon plant availability. We try our best but sometimes plants do not overwinter well and perish. If a plant is on back order you will receive an email indicating the estimated shipping date. If we can not provide the plant we will first notify you and give you an option of substitution or a refund of that individual species.
- Plants are typically only packaged and shipped on Mondays to ensure they do not sit in the harsh delivery facility for extended periods of time over the weekend. You will receive a confirmation email once your delivery has been shipped and to estimate your delivery date.
- Apparel & accessories are ready typically within one to two weeks. See product page for holiday shipping.
Where We Ship
What to Expect When Receiving Your Delivery
- Your plants will be packaged with the utmost care
- We will need to cut back certain plants prior to shipping. This seems counter-intuitive, however, the fewer leaves the less water the plants can lose during shipping, resulting in healthier plants for you. This also enables the plants to fit within the protective packaging and shipped safely.
Shipments
- Larger plant shipments will look similar to the picture below with a tray of your plants and a cardboard box to protect them during shipping.
What to Do With Your Plants After Receiving Your Delivery
- Unpack your order IMMEDIATELY
- Inspect for damage and report any issues immediately to Natives@NaturalCommunities.net
- Water your plants
- Install your plants as quickly as possible and water the entire garden area thoroughly
- If you cannot install your plants immediately
- Some plants may not be in a container, put them into some kind of a container such as a paper cup with loose soil until installation
- Make sure each plant is receiving the appropriate amount of light.
- Continue to water daily each morning and possibly again in the afternoon
- No additional fertilizer is needed
Seed Shipping & Care
Seed Shipping & Care
Seed ships all year and typically ships within a week of an order being placed.
We have attempted to put together some basic information regarding native seed installation, establishment, and maintenance. We hope you find it helpful. If you need further assistance on native seed establishment, please schedule a free consolation call here.
Consultation Services
Ecosystem Restoration Considerations
Native Seed Establishment Best Management Practices
Native Seed Stratification Best Management Practices
Questions & Answers
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