AI in Service of the Land
We use AI tools to work faster and smarter on real land problems. Here's what we've built, what we've learned, and what we're sharing.
What we're doing here
We're not an AI company. We're a small team working on real land problems in Montana — helping ranchers monitor what's actually happening to their soil, teaching holistic management, and building a network of people who care about the long-term health of working lands.
But AI tools have become genuinely useful in this work. We use them to analyze data faster, develop educational materials, build lightweight tools that would have taken much longer to create on our own, and think through problems at a pace that matches what ranchers actually need. When we find something that works, we share it.
This page is where that sharing happens. The tools we've built, the experiments we've run, the content we've created with AI as a collaborator. We're clear about what's a prototype and what's proven. More will be added here as we go.
Our Principles in using AI as a Tool in our Toolbox
Human Creativity/Joy/Impact First
AI tools that save us time for more human interaction, creativity, and impact is the right approach. AI tools that take away from that or try to replace it are not the best use of AI.
AI Organizes OUR Context
AI tools can help us organize so we can consider even more complexity clearly when making management decisions on our land. AI can help us make better decisions by providing more visibility/clarity when making the decisions. AI shouldn't make decisions for us.
AI has an environmental cost
No endless resource-hungry AI agent loops here. We use AI when it can unlock human focus, creativity, joy, and impact.
Our open source work lives on GitHub
The scripts, tools, and experiments we build are published under the working-lands-lab organization. Fork them, adapt them, or reach out if you want to collaborate.
working-lands-lab on GitHubAI Collaboration Content
We'll be publishing specific work here — tool write-ups, field experiments, and notes on what's actually useful when you apply AI to land management problems.
Start with our practical guide and the financial planning tool below, and check the Updates page for new posts as they come out.
AI & Holistic Management — A Practical Guide
A plain-language guide for practitioners: what these tools are, their real costs, two principles for using them well, and where they can help on the land. No AI background needed.
Holistic Financial Plan Builder
A guided walkthrough for building a Holistic Financial Plan — quality-of-life goal, enterprises, weak-link analysis, and a profit set-aside — with a take-home spreadsheet export. It runs entirely in your browser; nothing you enter leaves your device.