Ecological land restoration & management
Overstory is a South Carolina–based land restoration company working across Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee. We steward working landscapes by bringing back the ecological cycles that shaped them: grazing, fire, water, and measured disturbance.
Who we work with
We help landowners improve their land's ecological productivity, resilience, and long-term stewardship value. Our work may include invasive species control, prescribed grazing, prescribed fire planning and implementation, native plant seeding, access improvement, and on-the-ground support for EQIP and other conservation practices.
Land trusts, agencies, and NGOs often know precisely what a property needs and hold the plan to prove it. We're the field-implementation partner that brings the crews, livestock, and equipment to carry that prescription out and to monitor what follows.
What we do
Targeted livestock grazing used as a management tool to set back invasive and woody growth, open a dense understory, and cycle nutrients back into the soil as animals deposit manure and trample litter where it's needed. It should be viewed as one facet of a multipronged restoration approach, often working best when paired with fire, thinning, selective herbicide, seeding, or follow-up management.
As Certified Prescribed Fire Managers, we can guide landowners through the prescribed fire process from initial site assessment to firebreak installation, burn-plan development, and implementation. We approach fire as part of a larger restoration prescription, using it to reduce fuel loads, recycle nutrients, check woody encroachment, and support native plant communities adapted to periodic fire.
Hack-and-squirt and other targeted herbicide treatments that place a measured dose directly into the stems that need it, helping to remove invasive and undesirable woody species while leaving the surrounding native community intact. Applied precisely, it limits both off-target damage and total chemical use.
Selective thinning and timber-stand improvement that favors the trees and structure a healthy stand needs. Where it makes sense, material removed in the process is milled on site, allowing us to turn thinning residue into usable lumber rather than waste.
Re-establishing vegetated buffers along streams and wet ground to stabilize banks, filter runoff, shade water, and reconnect habitat. The work is matched to the watercourse and the land use around it.
Design and install earthworks like swales, terraces, and contour furrows that slow, spread, and sink rainfall instead of letting it run off. The result is more moisture held in the soil, less erosion, and ground that stays resilient through dry spells.
Ongoing stewardship for owners who want their land actively managed over years. We hold the plan, return on a schedule that fits the property, and adjust the work as the land responds.
How we work
We walk the ground and read what's there: soils, hydrology, existing vegetation, disturbance history, and the goals you hold for the property.
We write a plan matched to the site and the outcome: which treatments, in what order, at what intensity, and what to expect from each.
We bring the crews, livestock, and equipment and carry the prescription out on a schedule that fits the season and the site.
Ecological work is rarely one and done. We watch the response and adjust, because the land's answer is the real measure of the work.
About
Overstory is a South Carolina–based land restoration company working across Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee. We believe healthy Southeastern landscapes depend on thoughtful stewardship and the return of well-timed disturbance. Through grazing, prescribed fire, selective thinning, and other targeted practices, we help landowners and land managers restore ecological function to their land.
Founder
Jereme Fowler is the founder of Overstory Land Restoration and Management, where he helps landowners restore working landscapes through prescribed grazing, silvopasture, prescribed fire, habitat improvement, and regenerative land management.
A Clemson-trained Wildlife and Fisheries Biology graduate and Certified Prescribed Fire Manager, Jereme combines ecological training with practical experience managing livestock, forests, and degraded Piedmont landscapes. Since 2014, he has focused on bringing economically viable and ecologically restorative practices back to the region's farms, forests, and rural communities.
Through Overstory, he works to help landowners create landscapes that are more resilient, more productive, and more alive.
Get in touch
Send a few lines about the property and what you're hoping to do. We'll reply with whether it's a fit and what a sensible first step looks like.