A New Look at Agriculture—A Strategic Planning Tool to Revitalize Rural Enterprises and Help These Enterprises Succeed in an Era of Global Change.  Redefines agriculture's role in our economy, environment and culture.  Provides an interactive, facilitated group meeting format to identify obstacles and opportunities for maintaining economic viability of agricultural operations in a specific county, region or geographic area, and for generating new streams of revenue to improve profits. 

CH2M HILL Services -- CH2M HILL is one of the "Conservation Delivery Team" companies that is available to help Stewardship America deliver its services -- and implement new, cutting edge concepts on the ground. CH2M HILL's mission is to make the world a better place in service to its clients.  To view the company website, go to www.ch2m.com  For a comprehensive list of CH2M HILL services, click here.

Some the CH2M HILL services and tools that can be used to carry out Landscape Conservation Solutions include:

CH2M HILL’s Agricultural Services Division provides a full range of agricultural engineering, soil science and agronomy services for industries, municipalities, agriculture and government agencies. Typical applications include phytoremediation, irrigation and drainage systems, alternative landfill caps, animal waste management, and land application of wastewater and other residuals. CH2M HILL has been at the forefront of developing these technologies, designing plant- and soil-based systems for a host of successful projects that have garnered national awards and widespread approval from regulators and the communities in which they serve.

CH2M HILL’s “Credit Trading Tent”—Uses natural resources to create stewardship values on a property.  Allows landowners to "stack" values to improve revenues. For a brief overview, click here.

CH2M HILL’s “LIFE^TM” Model—The LIFE™ model is a software tool that balances competing priorities of economic growth and environmental stewardship, at the individual site level.  It has optimization utilities that provide least-cost stormwater management solutions to meet site specific stormwater protection goals and environmental protection objectives.  For a brief overview click: LIFE 

CH2M HILL's "NRLAM" Model—Natural Resources Liability and Asset Management (NRLAM) is CH2M HILL's trademark program for improving its clients' financial position with regard to land assets and natural resources. The program is grounded in an applied understanding of both environmental science and natural resource economics, both of which are used to achieve the best solutions to problems that affect a clients' financial position.  For more information click: NRLAM.

CH2M HILL’s "Sustainable Development" capabilities--creates benefits for the financial bottom line, society and the environment. CH2M HILL's expertise in the natural and built environments -- and a long-time investment in creating its sustainable development capacity -- makes the company the leading consultant in the U.S. and Canada for integrating sustainable development into planning and engineering. For more information, click Sustainable Development.

CH2M HILL’s “VOYAGE^TM” Model—Another powerful dynamic simulation & optimization tool to create cost-effective designs to improve agricultural irrigation efficiency on a field-by-field and crop-by-crop basis and establish better water balances on a regional basis.  For a brief overview click: VOYAGE

Common-Sense Operating Plans—This program provides a simple, one-stop, easy-to-use, easy-to-understand means to coordinate and integrate regulatory requirements for rural enterprises, seamlessly, into day-to-day operations.  

Community Revenue & Expense Studies—provide answers as to which land uses pay their way and which do not and whether planning for a diverse mix of land uses makes good fiscal and economic sense. 

Conservation Delivery Team—offers established "partnerships" with a variety of specialized firms to provide the expertise needed to carry out complex projects, when and where needed.

Customized Stewardship Planning—     
--   A site specific planning service; 
--   Can be carried out by in cooperation with individuals and firms who have been certified by the USDA/NRCS as Technical Service Providers (TSPs); 
--   Lays the ground work for program assessment, adjustment and assembly (see below) 
--   Addresses, and capitalizes on site-specific needs and opportunities to turn environmental assets into dollars, promote environmental compatibility, and layer multiple values on top of one another.
--   Uses existing expertise and resources of CH2M HILL’s Agricultural Services Division (see above).  For more information, please contact us.

Economic Stewardship—uses existing CH2M HILL expertise and resources combined with LCS tools to identify and optimize new economic opportunities for rural areas and communities. 

Endangered Species and Private Lands— (formerly the "Panthers & Private Lands" project) turns an environmental liability into an asset by providing economic incentives to conserve endangered species and other environmental resources.

Farmland Stewardship Program—(provides statutory authority and a program blueprint). This program was initiated as part of legislation leading up to 2002 Farm Bill. It builds on Sec. 2003 of the 2002 Farm Bill to allow for the assembly of up to 600 different federal programs, plus state, local, and private programs for farm, ranch, forest, and natural lands all in ONE contract.

The "Funding Finder" and "Money Maker" service— provides a simple tool to help you locate, make sense of and use thousands of grants and funding options from government and the private sector to add value to a property, generate new revenues or fund a project.  

Grant writing/procurement services--to help obtain grants and funding once the options that are best suited to the specific needs and circumstances of a project are identified.

Integrating Agriculture into Rural Planning —by identifying new roles and opportunities for agricultural operations adjacent to areas where new settlements are going to be built. Integrates agriculture into community planning and design to greatly reduce the impacts of development.

Program Assessment, Adjustment, and Assembly—  
--   Takes information gathered on a site-specific, county, regional and/or watershed basis; 
--   Utilizes government grants and funding, either alone or in conjunction with private dollars; and 
--   Uses these dollars to carry out design/build/operate projects; 
--   Thus, this makes the most of existing opportunities to obtain maximum value for the  activities carried out on each parcel of land.  For more information, please contact us.

The Rural Lands Stewardship Program—has been cited by planners as “by far the best concept we’ve ever seen to address rural growth issues” because it does not pit development and preservation against each other but, instead, harnesses the market economy to provide funding for and significant, compelling incentives to private landowners to permanently protect important public values and natural resources while accommodating growth.

Total Land Solutions--A comprehensive "package" of CH2M HILL and Stewardship America services offering solutions for carrying out any type of land utilization, restoration or conservation activity.

True Cost Accounting—helps policy makers see the long-term fiscal impacts of current land uses, better understand the impacts of proposed additions and changes, and ask themselves what if different approaches were used? Would they generate new revenues, offset deficits, create a better balance and mix of uses, and result in a more livable community?