Great Plains Restoration Council

What Great Plains Restoration Council does

Great Plains Restoration Council (GPRC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1999 and headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. The organization originated and operates under the proprietary "Ecological Health" framework, defined as "the interdependent health of people, animals and ecosystems," which integrates restoration ecology with social-work practice. GPRC delivers four signature programs: Plains Youth InterACTION™ (youth leadership and prairie restoration), Restoration Not Incarceration™ (evidence-based recidivism reduction, with cited 77.2% no-arrest rate at 24 months), Your Health Outdoors™ (general public volunteer engagement), and Shark Therapy™ (an annual ocean-conservation and wellness event for veterans, formerly incarcerated individuals, and front-line health workers). Its conservation footprint includes Fort Worth Prairie Park (3,000+ acres), Caprock Canyons State Park, Oglala Prairie Preserve (4,600 acres adjacent to Badlands National Park), Galisteo Basin Preserve in New Mexico, and Esteban Park in Houston, with a proposed 100,000+ acre Texas Great Plains State Park initiative in the Texas Panhandle.

Underlying "technology" is the Ecological Health model itself, supported by the Twelve Components framework and the downloadable Ecological Health Life Wheel, neither of which is a software product. GPRC is a field-delivery, community-led organization; its outputs are restored acres, program participants, and educational content rather than licensed technology. There is no app, no API, no SDK, and no AI/ML capability disclosed.

GPRC's revenue model is donation- and grant-funded: individual donations processed via Network for Good, foundation and government grants, and grant-funded work scholarships paid to qualifying formerly incarcerated young adults. Programs are free to participants, delivered directly by GPRC staff at project sites and through partner organizations including Gangstas to Growers and West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (Atlanta), The Alliance for Ecotherapy & Social Justice (Oakland), Wildlands Restoration Corporation, Commonweal Conservancy, the National Park Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the Kiowa Tribe. The organization employs 11–50 staff and is led by founder and CEO Jarid Manos; it is governed as a nonprofit board structure with no parent company, subsidiaries, or equity investors identified.

Name

Great Plains Restoration Council

Legal name

Great Plains Restoration Council

Website

https://gprc.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Great Plains Restoration Council is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that integrates restoration ecology with social work through its proprietary Ecological Health model, serving at-risk youth, formerly incarcerated individuals, veterans, and volunteers across prairie and ocean conservation sites in Texas, New Mexico, South Dakota, Georgia, and California.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Conservation & Ecological Restoration Services

NAICS

Environment, Conservation and Wildlife Organizations (813312), Nature Parks and Other Similar Institutions (712190)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Land Trusts & Protected Areas (BPAGAGAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Environmental Interpretation & Ranger-Led Education Programs (Visitor Education) (THAAAOAJ), Environmental Science & Sustainability Programs (Ecology, Climate, Conservation) (EDAMABAD), Education & Community Programs (Junior Ranger, Citizen Science, School Programs) (THAAAGAK)

Keywords

• Ecological restoration services
• Conservation nonprofit programs
• Nature-based therapy
• Prairie conservation initiatives
• Youth environmental education

Headquarters

HQ city

Fort Worth

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Contributions: Great Plains Restoration Council is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that relies on public donations and charitable contributions from individuals to fund restoration work and programs.
2. Foundation and Grant Funding: The organization receives support from foundations and government grants for conservation, restoration, and social work programs. National donors who supported GPRC's creation requested that Ecological Health practices be expanded to other communities and ecoregions.
3. Work Scholarship Programs: Restoration Not Incarceration program offers transitional green job opportunities for formerly incarcerated young adults who qualify for work scholarships while learning Ecological Health principles.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Great Plains Restoration Council (GPRC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that delivers ecological restoration and nature-based social work programs under its proprietary Ecological Health model. It runs four signature programs — Plains Youth InterACTION™, Restoration Not Incarceration™, Your Health Outdoors™ and Shark Therapy™ — across owned and partner conservation sites including Fort Worth Prairie Park, Oglala Prairie Preserve, Caprock Canyons State Park, Galisteo Basin Preserve and Esteban Park. Programs combine hands-on prairie and ocean restoration with youth development, recidivism reduction, and trauma recovery.

Product overview

Great Plains Restoration Council operates as a unified non-profit organization built around its core Ecological Health model—a framework that integrates restoration ecology with social work. The organization's portfolio includes four signature programs: Plains Youth InterACTION™ for youth leadership development, Restoration Not Incarceration™ for recidivism reduction, Your Health Outdoors™ for general public engagement, and Shark Therapy™ for ocean conservation and healing. These programs operate across multiple conservation sites including Fort Worth Prairie Park (over 3,000 acres), proposed Texas Great Plains State Park (100,000+ acres), Caprock Canyons State Park, Oglala Prairie Preserve, Galisteo Basin Preserve, and Esteban Park. The organization also advances the Buffalo Commons movement and provides the Ecological Health Life Wheel as a foundational framework. Together, these offerings form an integrated system where conservation work and human wellness reinforce each other.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Restoration Not Incarceration™: Program providing ecological restoration and preservation in conjunction with rehabilitation and recidivism reduction of young adults and juveniles
• Shark Therapy™
• Plains Youth InterACTION™
• Your Health Outdoors™
• Ecological Health

Products and services

• Plains Youth InterACTION™ Youth engagement program that brings North Texas inner-city youth to Fort Worth Prairie Park for hands-on ecological restoration, leadership development, and personal responsibility training. Designed for children from various economic and ethnic backgrounds facing social and emotional challenges.
• Restoration Not Incarceration™

Quantifiable outcome

• 77.2% of Conservation Work Probation Program graduates had no new arrest after up to 24 months
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Wildlands Restoration CorporationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint project partner in securing the Oglala Prairie Preserve purchase in 2005. A private trust that stepped in to save 4,600 acres adjacent to Badlands National Park when the National Park Service could not move fast enough. Critical partner in protecting Northern Plains mixed-grass prairie habitat.
• Commonweal ConservancycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for Galisteo Basin Preserve prairie dog reintroduction project in Santa Fe County, New Mexico. Rescued rare Gunnison's prairie dogs from development areas and reintroduced them to the preserve where they had been extirpated. Successfully completed prairie dog reintroduction.
• National Park ServicecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOngoing partnership for Oglala Prairie Preserve adjacent to Badlands National Park. Agreement reached to remove 6.5 mile park fence to allow ecological connection between preserve and Sage Creek Wilderness. Boundary expansion approval pending in Washington, D.C. for NPS to acquire the preserve.
• Gangstas to GrowerscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAtlanta-based partnership to expand Ecological Health goals and outputs. Includes ecological restoration of Southern Piedmont ecoregion old growth urban forest in West Atlanta, South Florida marine projects, and peer-exchange prairie restoration work for Gangstas to Growers cohort members in Texas.
• West Atlanta Watershed AlliancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAtlanta-based partnership for expanding Ecological Health practices in West Atlanta watershed areas. Joint work on old growth urban forest restoration and environmental justice initiatives.
• The Alliance for Ecotherapy & Social Justice (TAESJ)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNew partnership in 2024 for Oakland programs. GPRC assisted TAESJ with Ecological Health work day at The Gardens at Lake Merritt sponsored by Alameda County Health/Behavioral Health Dept. Future plans for 2025 involve working with Oakland and Richmond, CA for youth organization support.
• Kiowa TribecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for Texas Great Plains State Park initiative. The Kiowa Tribe is part of the A-Team of executives from State agencies, conservation non-profits, foundations, banking and the Kiowa Tribe working to establish a landscape-scale shortgrass prairie preserve in the Texas Panhandle.
• Texas Parks and Wildlife DepartmentcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for Caprock Canyons State Park and Texas Great Plains State Park initiatives. Collaborating on Southern Great Plains Conservation & Recreation Area in the Canadian River country of the Texas Panhandle for protection of genetically distinct Texas bison herd.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Ducks Unlimited: Ducks Unlimited is a major U.S. conservation nonprofit focused on wetlands and grasslands for waterfowl, with significant overlap to GPRC's prairie and grassland bird habitat goals. While focused on waterfowl, it pursues similar habitat-restoration funding and public-private partnership structures at scale.
• National Wildlife Federation: National Wildlife Federation is a large conservation nonprofit focused on protecting wildlife habitat and educating the public, overlapping with GPRC's native prairie, prairie dog, and grassland bird conservation work. While much broader in scope, it shares a similar constituency of donors, advocates, and government partners in the U.S. conservation ecosystem.
• Trust for Public Land: Trust for Public Land is a national nonprofit that conserves land for public use, including state park creation. It is comparable to GPRC's proposed Texas Great Plains State Park effort, where multi-stakeholder coalitions convert landscapes into publicly protected areas.
• The Conservation Fund: The Conservation Fund is a national nonprofit that works with public and private partners to conserve land, including rapid acquisition when the National Park Service or others cannot move quickly enough, similar to GPRC/Wildlands' Oglala Prairie Preserve model. It is a broad incumbent with comparable land-acquisition and partnership playbook.
• The Nature Conservancy: The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit that acquires and manages land for conservation, very similar in mission to GPRC's prairie land protection work. It is a broad incumbent with a vastly larger portfolio, but it competes for the same donor dollars, federal grants, and conservation policy attention that GPRC pursues at a landscape scale.

Emerging players

• Center for Biological Diversity: The Center for Biological Diversity focuses on protecting endangered species and habitats through science, policy, and legal action, with overlapping focus on prairie dog conservation and imperiled ecosystems like those GPRC protects. Comparable as a species- and habitat-focused advocacy nonprofit, though it leads via legal action rather than direct land management.

Direct peers

• Student Conservation Association: Student Conservation Association engages youth and young adults in conservation service work across U.S. public lands, mirroring GPRC's Plains Youth InterACTION youth restoration model. It is a direct peer in using conservation work as a vehicle for youth development and education.
• EarthCorps: EarthCorps is a nonprofit that runs youth and young adult restoration crews combining ecological restoration with leadership development. It is a direct peer to GPRC's Restoration Not Incarceration and Plains Youth InterACTION programs, which similarly blend green-job training, social work, and habitat restoration.
• Commonweal Conservancy: Commonweal Conservancy is a nonprofit land conservancy that partners with GPRC on prairie conservation projects, including the Gunnison's prairie dog reintroduction at Galisteo Basin Preserve in New Mexico. It is a direct peer in landscape-scale prairie and species conservation.
• Wildlands Restoration Corporation: Wildlands Restoration Corporation is a nonprofit land trust focused on purchasing and protecting native prairie ecosystems. It is a direct peer because GPRC and Wildlands jointly acquired the Oglala Prairie Preserve in 2005, making them co-stewards of the same 4,600-acre preserve adjacent to Badlands National Park.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/greatplainsrestorationcouncil
• Xx.com/GPRCnews
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/great-plains-restoration-council

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Great Plains Restoration Council