Our Story
About
Mission
Conservation data infrastructure, built for teams without engineering departments.
Most small conservation organizations didn't set out to manage databases. They set out to protect habitat, study species, and restore land. The data work is necessary — and for teams without dedicated engineering staff, it's become a real bottleneck.
Northwoods Data Co. was founded to change that. We clean, connect, and unify conservation data so your team can spend its time on the science, the land, the wildlife.
Why Northwoods Data Co.
Domain Expertise
Joh is a conservation scientist who came to data engineering through field ecology — bioacoustic surveys, species monitoring, restoration data. We understand why taxonomy matters, what a funder report is actually asking for, and how field data goes wrong before it ever reaches a database. You won't spend the first three meetings explaining your work to us.
Proven Approach
We've built data infrastructure for conservation programs at scale — a pipeline for Conservation International's Priceless Planet Coalition and multi-source analytics infrastructure for a state-level wildlife health surveillance program. Northwoods is a new firm. The approach it's built on isn't.
Built for Your Scale
We work with conservation programs that don't have dedicated data engineering capacity — small-to-mid-sized organizations, and field or research programs within larger ones. Fixed scope. Transparent process. No billing surprises.
Prior Work
Northwoods is new. The work it's built on isn't.
Before founding Northwoods, Joh built data infrastructure for conservation programs at scale. Two examples:
Conservation International
Priceless Planet Coalition — Tree Restoration Monitoring
Built a data pipeline processing field monitoring submissions from tree restoration projects across multiple countries. The pipeline automated species name reconciliation against international taxonomic databases, flagged potentially invasive plantings, and generated standardized impact reports — tracking planted and naturally regenerated trees across dozens of sites for coalition-wide reporting.
Wildlife Health Surveillance
State Agency-Scale Data Infrastructure
Built a multi-source data integration and analytics platform for a state wildlife health surveillance program — ingesting lab results from multiple veterinary diagnostic laboratories, standardizing records against controlled vocabularies, and delivering an agency-facing analytics platform with geospatial dashboards and disease trend analysis. Integrated platform with other national wildlife health platforms/warehouses.
Who We Serve
Conservation programs where the land, water, and wildlife come first.
We work with conservation programs that don't have dedicated data engineering capacity — small-to-mid-sized organizations, and field or research programs within larger ones doing serious ecological work without the in-house technical support their data demands.
Work With Us- Land trusts and conservancies
- Wildlife management agencies
- Conservation-focused nonprofits
- Natural history institutions
- Field research programs
- Environmental education organizations
The Team
Meet the founders.
Northwoods Data Co. was started by two brothers who grew up in the Northwoods of Minnesota. Their parents met at Wilderness Canoe Base and still live there. The company is a chance to bring what they know professionally to the natural world they grew up in.
Chris Nelson
Co-founder — strategy, client partnerships, scoping, and proposals.
Chris is Northwoods' business lead — the client-facing side of scoping, proposals, and partnerships. His path here has run through a decade teaching at international schools in Manila and Tokyo, co-founding a venture-backed edtech startup, and senior consulting on enterprise strategic deals. What pulled him toward Northwoods was watching how enterprise clients get scope, pricing, and handoff done well — and knowing that discipline should apply just as much to smaller mission-driven organizations.
At Northwoods, his focus is the front end: making sure you know exactly what you're buying, what it will cost, and what your team will own when the work is done. The discipline is the same as enterprise delivery. The stakes just matter more.
Joh Nelson
Co-founder — data engineering, systems architecture, technical delivery.
Joh is a conservation scientist and data engineer. His background is in field ecology — avian and amphibian bioacoustic surveys, species monitoring, restoration data — which is what led him to data engineering: when the data side of conservation programs started breaking down, he started fixing it. Before Northwoods, he built data pipelines for Conservation International and analytics infrastructure for wildlife health surveillance programs at state agency scale.
At Northwoods, his focus is the handoff — making sure what he builds is documented, explainable, and maintainable by your team without a data engineer on call.
We started Northwoods because small conservation organizations deserve the same kind of data infrastructure that large research institutions take for granted — without the enterprise price tag or the vendor dependency that usually comes with it.
Common Questions
Frequently asked questions.
What about cloud infrastructure costs?
Our project fee covers our work. Cloud hosting and third-party platform fees are paid directly by you — for most small conservation organizations this runs $20–$50 per month, and AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure all offer free nonprofit credits that often cover the first year or more. Before anything is set up, we help you pick the lowest-cost option that fits.
What if we don't know what data we actually have?
Most of our clients don't when we start — that's exactly what Phase 1 (Discovery) is for. We map what you have, identify what's missing, and tell you what's feasible before you commit to anything. You don't need to have it figured out before you call us; the figuring-out is part of the work.
Do we have to change the platforms we already use?
Usually not. We're platform-agnostic — we work with what you have (Salesforce, Airtable, Survey123, Fulcrum, GIS tools, spreadsheets, any combination). Our job is to connect and unify what's already in place, not to force a migration.
Can a smaller organization actually afford this?
Our Foundational tier starts at $15,000, which is a real commitment for organizations under $1M in operating budget. Many smaller clients fund this through capacity-building grants from foundations like NFWF, Doris Duke, or state-level conservation programs. On the first call, we'll talk through whether this is the right moment for your organization, or whether a smaller scope makes more sense.
What happens after the project ends?
Everything is yours — the code, the documentation, and full access to the cloud environment we set up. Most systems need some ongoing maintenance as data sources change and programs grow. You can work with us through a monthly retainer starting at $750, bring in someone else, or handle it with your own staff if you have the capacity. Retainers are never bundled into the project fee.
Who owns the work, and what happens to our data?
You own everything we build — all code, documentation, and infrastructure is transferred to your organization at handoff. Your data stays in your systems, under your control. We don't retain copies, we don't use it to train models, and we don't reference it with other clients.
Do you work with government-funded or government-adjacent organizations?
Yes, with one adjustment. Public universities, state agencies, and federally funded programs need a pre-engagement audit (we call it Phase 0) to confirm procurement rules, data-access policies, and reporting obligations. Phase 0 typically adds 6–12 weeks and a separate contract — but you'll know exactly what's involved before anything else begins.
Why a two-person firm for something this important?
Because at our size, both founders are on every engagement. No account manager, no handoff chain, no junior engineer learning on your project. We take fewer clients at a time, which is why we can deliver what we promise.
"The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts."— Aldo Leopold