Stewardship
We take a science-based approach to protect, manage, and restore our natural areas. For each natural area, we implement a set of conservation actions to achieve a specific goal.
These stewardship efforts range from basic preserve management, such as trail maintenance, boundary posting and defense, and litter removal, to more involved efforts like invasive species control, deer management, rare species reintroductions, or habitat restoration.
You can become part of our stewardship efforts by participating in the Natural Areas Academy. Learn more here.
Two principle stewardship efforts focus on invasive species control and deer management.
Heavy deer browse and the uncontrolled spread of invasive species can often significantly degrade a natural area, by reducing the overall vigor and abundance of our native flora, and can even result in the local extinction of species. These impacts, in turn, can prompt a cascading series of negative impacts on our native fauna, leaving a diminished ecosystem.
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