This booklet is a summary of the important elements necessary or helpful for effectively working with private landowners or their managers. The goal in this document is to share some of the things we wished we had realized or known earlier in our careers. Some of it may be obvious, some of it may be insightful, but most of all, I hope it inspires you to view your role as a natural resource conservationist a little differently.

This material contains general principles that are applicable to nearly every situation; however, it is not a cookbook approach since each landowner and each piece of land is different and unique. The material is divided into four parts with considerable overlap and dovetailing between the parts.