about

Meet the owner

Daniel Ramsay

Owner

Daniel Ramsay, Owner of RestorEcology, LLC, has 17 years of experience in the environmental restoration industry in the Southeast. Initially developing his technical background as a consulting scientist, he transitioned to project and operations management over time.

For the last several years, Daniel oversaw more than 100 design & construction staff as regional manager for one of the largest restoration-focused companies in the US. With both the scientific and management side of the business in hand, he decided to start RestorEcology to partner more closely with North Carolina’s landowners.

With experience in wetland/stream assessment, mitigation plan development, and real estate acquisition, he is uniquely positioned to respect the integrity of a property and its management needs, while also identifying areas where natural habitats can be restored and protected. Daniel lives in Cary, NC with his wife and five kids, and gets outside whenever he can.

17 Years of

Environmental Restoration

RestorEcology takes a unique approach to natural habitat restoration projects. Pulling from our experience in working with more than thirty landowners in previous mitigation projects, we’ve decided to partner directly with landowners in implementing projects. Landowners bring one of the most critical elements to a project: the land itself.

RestorEcology brings the expertise and experience needed to permit, plant, monitor, maintain, and steward a project in perpetuity. Additionally, we use our financial and market analysis experience to select projects that have a clear path to strong financial returns, both for the landowner and RestorEcology.

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

The project restores a portion of your property to a wooded habitat that provides wildlife habitat and water quality improvements in ditches and streams on your property.

Native trees (oaks, poplar, sycamore, cypress, persimmon, etc.) are planted to give the woods a jumpstart, and invasive species are treated with herbicides.

Your property has farmed areas along streams that could be restored to a natural habitat.

This is a real estate transaction, with fair-market and negotiated compensation to establish a conservation easement on a portion of your property along the streams/ditches.

Yes, RestorEcology can use a partnering approach with a landowner to share project revenues. Other options could include purchasing the land outright, installment payments, or full payment at project approval.

The NC Division of Water Resources (DWR) oversees the development of the project.

RestorEcology bears the cost of project development, including survey, permitting, planting, monitoring, maintenance, and stewardship.

Developers in the watershed are required to offset the negative impacts to water quality created by development. They would pay RestorEcology to be credited a piece of the project.

No ownership of the project or land itself transfers to the developer – just the water quality improvement (in nitrogen pounds) created by the project.

After the trees are monitored for five years and are growing successfully, RestorEcology funds an endowment for a long-term steward, typically a land trust, to hold the conservation easement and ensure it remains intact in perpetuity.

You would retain the right to walk/hunt/fish in the easement area, but cannot build trails and structures.