About

About Eco-Management

Eco-Management, Inc. consults with property managers and maintenance crews, instructing them how to manage and enhance native plant communities. Our goal is to develop healthy and natural plant communities and landscapes that are compatible with your life and your needs. Just as important, the maintenance of these communities must fit within your budget and your available time and staff.

Founded in 1987

The company was founded in January, 1987 under the name Pacific OpenSpace, Inc.  For the following 29 years, we operated as a restoration contractor serving a wide range of clients, including real estate developers, industrial sites, government agencies, private estates and vineyards. At the same time, we owned and operated the North Coast Native Nursery, growing a wide range of native plants, mostly from seed and cuttings we collected in the field. Our experience gave us direct knowledge about the tools and techniques of land management, as well as the response of native plants to our activities. We share this knowledge with our clients.

Now focusing on consulting

In January 2016, we decided to focus our services on advising and consulting for golf courses, vineyards and private landholders.   

We offer comprehensive consulting services for the design, establishment and management of natural areas. We participate in projects that call for mitigation, restoration, erosion control and related work.  

About Dave Kaplow

A New Jersey native, Dave began his environmental studies at Rutgers University, graduating in 1977. He spent the next two years working as a groom at a thoroughbred breeding farm in Ohio, and later grew orchids and roses at a wholesale production nursery in Eugene, Oregon.

In 1979, Dave entered the graduate program at UC, Berkeley, where he studied environmental management in the Forestry Department. He received his Master’s Degree in 1982.

In 1982, Dave joined the non-profit group Design Associates Working with Nature (DAWN). This group was one of the first organizations in California to perform native plant restoration projects. Their main achievement was the restoration at the Berkeley North Waterfront Park (Cesar Chavez Park). This was the first native restoration at San Francisco Bay.  This project was a testing ground for over 120 species of native plants, all grown at DAWN’s native plant nursery. It was during this period that Dave worked with David Amme, and gained extensive knowledge about native grasses. Dave also collected native grass seed from wild locations. Much of that seed was used to begin the first commercial production fields of California native grasses.

In 1987, Dave founded Pacific OpenSpace, Inc. This company had two divisions. The contracting division performed restoration and land management projects for government agencies, real estate developers, industrial and commercial client as well as private landholders. The North Coast Native Nursery raised native plants for Pacific OpenSpace and also for other landscape contractors and retail clients.

In 2016, after almost 30 years as a contractor, Dave closed the contracting business and split off the nursery to his former partner. He now spends his full attention on teaching others what he has learned, and passing that knowledge along.