What We Do
We help landowners, developers, homeowner associations and major tenants
UER serves landowners, developers, homeowner associations and major tenants who are planning for new construction projects, rehabilitation projects, landscape retrofits, or who may be trying to preserve natural areas of their sites.
Create and Restore
Create Eco-Functioning Spaces® (EFS) on private lands, with a focus on strategic locations that benefit the Potomac, Patuxent, and Anacostia River Watersheds.
Through its Healthy Habitats Program, UER works with communities, developers, contractors, and designers to create or restore natural areas that meet Eco-Functioning Space criteria. This ensures that the natural areas maximize ecosystem function and their economic value to the site. UER also certifies proposed natural areas as Eco-Functioning Spaces.
Engage and Educate
Engage people – tenants, site users, and community members – with, and build connections to, the Eco-Functioning Spaces® (EFS) using educational and health-focused programming.
Through its Learn & Spread the Word Program, UER develops educational programming about natural ecosystems and Eco-Functioning Spaces. We teach people about the key features of our EFS demonstration projects that people can implement on the lands they care for. UER creates manuals and guides about cost-effective maintenance of EFS; we develop “where to find” and “how to” resource guides; we offer webinars and speaking engagements; and we partner with health and STEM programs to connect people’s understanding of health and earth system science with EFS.
Protect and Steward
Protect the ecosystem functions created by these Eco-Functioning Spaces® (EFS) for extended periods of time (generally over 30 years).
Through its Long-Term Stewardship Program, UER works with communities and landowners to protect their Eco-Functioning Spaces by implementing monitoring and maintenance oversight. We enter into cooperative agreements with owners that provide mutual commitments to share specialized maintenance expertise and ensure that EFS are meeting EFS criteria and thriving long into the future; we work with landscaping contractor teams to ensure appropriate care for EFS and provide project-specific guidelines with updates as EFS grow, develop, and change.
Aggregate and Connect
Aggregate Eco-Functioning Spaces® to restore large scale ecosystem function in metropolitan areas and connect EFS at local and regional levels.
Through our EFS Networks Program, UER identifies and targets urban areas that need EFS or other kinds of urban nature to build green infrastructure connectivity and strengthen regional ecosystems – while ensuring essential ecosystem services are delivered to neighborhoods in need; UER also advises on green infrastructure planning for neighborhoods, cities, and regions.