Care for the land you love.
Realize a holistic land management operation worthy of the place we’re in.
Bringing outcomes to life for your family, business, & community
SMF Land Management Consulting offers help in all stages of your process for implementing new practices and managing ongoing operations on your land. From helping you create initial designs and concepts to optimizing long established operations, we lead and facilitate analysis, planning, implementation, and ongoing management planning for your landscape with the hope of strengthening ecological function, building resilience, and deepening your relationship to place.
Whole systems thinking guides everything we do. By partnering with property owners and property managers, as well as by considering all aspects of the property (people, politics, economics, and ecology), we help create a definition of success and a plan to achieve it. We bring an approach that builds shared values and understanding to help you steward your landscape in the best possible capacity, whatever that may mean to you.
Helping you plan, implement, and monitor integrated management techniques on your land.
Success is highly subjective and must be defined, first and foremost, by the stewards of the place. We help our clients determine what it is that brings fulfillment, and use those values as an empowering directive in defining, communicating, and achieving a vision.
From management plans to simple brainstorming sessions, SMF can help clarify direction and put a pathway in place to ensure goals are met.
Our toolbox of testing and analysis techniques help you better understand your property so that your actions are efficient and aligned with your end goals. From soil health testing and vegetation surveys to GIS spatial analysis, we provide and contextualize the information needed to make holistically informed decisions on your land.
Services
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Education
Visioning
Goal Setting
Defining Pathways
SWOT Analysis
Success is highly subjective and must be defined, first and foremost, by the stewards of the place. We want to help determine what it is that makes you feel fulfilled and use that as an empowering directive in defining and communicating your vision.From comprehensive management plans to simple brainstorming sessions, SMF can help clarify direction and put a pathway in place to ensure goals are met.
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Mapping & Spatial Analysis
Weed Identification & Mapping
Irrigation Evaluation
Soil Testing/ Evaluation
Current Practices Evaluation
Vegetation Survey
Micro Climate Analysis
Historical Management & Use
SMF Land Management Consulting has a large tool box of testing and analysis techniques to help you better understand your property. From soil health testing and vegetation surveys to GIS spatial analysis, we can provide the information needed to make informed decisions on your land. We effectively communicate existing conditions and directions through professionally presented maps, graphics, and reports.
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Planting Plans
Seeding Plans
Nutrient Management Plans
Garden Design
Grazing Design
Keyline Design
Orchard Plans
Soil Health Planning
Integrated Management Planning
Through a creative design process and thoughtful planning we will help to optimize your current programs and/or identify concrete pathways towards your definition of success. Our design background helps us plan for health and resilience through grazing planning, soil health planning, vegetation management, and thoughtful infrastructure recommendations. We embrace small failures as this is how we learn, adapt, and sharpen the management style that is best for you and your land.
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Owners Representative
Project Management
Sub Contracting
Meeting Moderation
Labor Planning
Staff Training
Putting your plan into action is a key piece of the path to success and we work with owners, managers, staff, and contractors to make it happen. We have built a broad network of professionals and resources in the agriculture and land management community which are utilized throughout our work with you. Throughout the implementation of your project, we can help communicate the vision and ensure all activities are in service of project goals.
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Soil Testing/ Change Tracking
Pasture Species Analysis
We thoughtfully utilize our testing and monitoring techniques to assess the effectiveness of management and to make informed adjustments to the management system. We rarely expect to see the results of our work immediately. Regenerating land takes time. Regularly gathering feedback from your efforts helps you keep your management aligned with your goals and ensure efficacy.
Meet the Consultants
Cooper Means, owner of Shining Mountains Farm, was born in the Roaring Fork Valley and has spent the last 15 years dedicated to food production in the region through diversified farming, education, experimentation, stewardship and systems integration.
Gaelen Means brings a background across disciplines of design, agriculture, research, and project management. Degrees in Environmental Science and Landscape Architecture in addition to past experience on trans-disciplinary research and ag projects across the US give Gaelen a broad understanding of various agricultural methods and environments.
“If we can’t afford to take care of the land that feeds us, we’re in an insurmountable mess.”
— Wendell Berry
Conservation in Practice
We approach land management holistically, emphasizing practicality and fostering connections between people and ecological systems for our clients. Our aim is to optimize benefits for owners, the environment, and communities on working landscapes.
We partner with land owners and on-the-ground stakeholders to reach outcomes, utilizing vision development, data collection and mapping, thoughtful design, and on-site meetings to fuel long-path decision making. We use our connections and knowledge to make sure you have everything you need to put the plans into action and see results.
Practicing what we preach, SMF Land Management Consulting is based out of Shining Mountains Farm, owned and operated by Cooper Means. The land is leased from Pitkin County as a part of their Agricultural Lease Program. The project began in 2016 and has been a testing ground for agricultural techniques adapted to the unique climate of the Roaring Fork Valley. SMF has continually experimented with soil conservation techniques including rotational grazing, green manure and cover cropping, no-till seeding, and Keyline plowing, while becoming one of the only current grain producers in the valley while creating space for developing tried-and-true methods we employ with our local client partners.
Shining Mountains Farm
Old Snowmass, Colorado
“A society grows great when old men plant trees
whose shade they know they will never sit in.”
— Greek Proverb
