Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land is an accessible, hands-on guide for anyone—regardless of scientific background—who wants to restore native landscapes and improve ecological function on their property. Whether you’re caring for a backyard, a farm, or a public greenspace, this book provides a clear and empowering path to take meaningful action for the environment. Grounded in the authors’ own restoration work in Wisconsin, the book introduces a straightforward, step-by-step process for planning, implementing, and monitoring ecological restoration projects. Through practical examples and user-friendly language, readers learn how to assess a site’s condition, set realistic goals, and apply restoration strategies suited to its unique ecological and social context. The second half expands that guidance to a variety of ecosystems across North America, showing how the same core principles can be applied to landscapes of any size or condition. From prairie and woodland to wetland and rangeland, readers gain the confidence to begin—or improve—their own restoration efforts. Ideal for landowners, nonprofit staff, conservation volunteers, and agency professionals, Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land serves as both a field manual and a source of inspiration. It helps readers reconnect with the places they care about most—and gives them the tools to heal them. "This manual celebrates human connectedness to the natural world. By putting the sciences and the arts together to restore land and bring it back to health, Steve and Alan guide us to manage the land and then to understand and love the land." -- Nina Leopold Bradley "Infused with land ethic and solid ecology, this volume spells out a compelling process for restoration, from initial concept to planning, implementation, and long-term management. Everyone interested in the practice of restoration, professionals included, will appreciate the holistic vision of restoration and its societal role espoused in this book-length essay." -- John Shuey ― Director of Conservation Science, Indiana Office of The Nature Conservancy " Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land provides critical insights into the real work of healing ecological functions of degraded landscapes. The authors are visionary practitioners who have amassed a wealth of hands-on experiences validated by long-term ecological monitoring. This book will assist private land owners, public land managers, and land conservancy stewards to design and execute restoration activities yielding ecologically significant results." -- Peter R. Stein ― Managing Director, The Lyme Timber Company "This down-to-earth book gives land owners the confidence and courage to initiate their own ecological restoration programs. The reader should be warned that Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land could easily inspire you to embark on a lifelong, learn-as-you-go adventure on your own land that's guaranteed to keep your brow sweaty, your knuckles dirty, and your spirit soaring." -- Andre Clewell ― President Emeritus, Society for Ecological Restoration International "Ecological recovery are what many places need to recover their natural beauty. Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land is a guide to restoring ecological areas where urbanization has caused environmental decay. With chapters discussing many types of areas from plains to forests, and step by step plans to tracking progress, Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land proves to be a powerful reference and guide, highly recommended to any in charge of overseeing such projects for its comprehensive collection of tips and advice." ― Midwest Book Review "Landscape architects, who increasingly get a significant percentage of business from restoration, will find this thorough, replicable process valuable, whatever their experience level. Professionals will benefit from the authors' insistence on monitoring measurable results: Too many of our ecological and sustainable projects never receive this validation, even from LEED and its offspring." ― Landscape Architecture Magazine "Steven Apfelbaum and Alan Haney are both seasoned restoration practitioners from Wisconsin, a heartland of North American restoration practice and science. They write about restoring land on small, private holdings. The authors provide step-by-step guidance on executing and monitoring the restoration of grasslands, forests, wetlands, riparian areas, and even desert areas. It is a well-written, well-produced, and authoritative book, which I recommend wholeheartedly for readers with no appetite to tackle the specialized literature, but who have restoration projects in mind, at heart, or underway, especially on their own land." ― Conservation Biology "Overall, I would think that this book is a useful primer for undergraduates studying ecological restoration or restoration ecology. The first part is generic and could be used anywhere in the world; the latter half is hea