Mist rolls along a mountain forest canopy
REJUVENATE LANDSCAPES AND WATERWAYS
WITH YOUR OWN TWO HANDS

DISCOVER HOW TO

HEAL LAND THROUGH

WATER CYCLE RESTORATION

Join the Core Course

The Live 2025 Core Course

Early Bird Deadline

14Days
16Hours
25Minutes
47Seconds
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Join before the deadline to

Unlock Extra Bonuses

Water Stories students complete a pond project during a workshop

Pond Building

Our master course on pond building, coming in 2025. This course covers a the construction of an earth water body from start to finish, detailing the whole process and what to consider each step along the way.

Bonus Master Course

A tapped spring with water flowing

Spring Tapping

Our master course on spring tapping, coming in 2025. How to tap a spring for drinking water, maintaining the highest quality with a natural tapping that will last lifetimes.

Bonus Master Course

ENROLLMENT NOW OPEN FOR LIVE 2025

WHAT IS THE

CORE COURSE?

Large machines completing earthworks during a water restoration project

Real Experience, Real Results

We’ve spent more than a decade implementing projects around the world - learning from some of the legends of ecosystem restoration along the way. We compiled all of the best lessons, approaches, and strategies into this course. 


But there’s more!

This course also provides the details that are so often left out. How to connect with nature, managing contractors and clients, equipment and materials, becoming a voice for the voiceless, budgeting and expenses, refining your offering, and so much more. 


This course takes you beyond theory, into practice. If you do the work in this course, by the end, you'll be prepared and confident to to start implementing real world projects. In the process you will have already established the connections and clients needed to make them happen.

A transformational experience that will reshape your relationship with water, land and life. 

This course provides you with everything you need to start engaging in water cycle restoration in a meaningful way.

From reading the book of nature, to the technical aspects of implementing decentralized water retention, to the personal development to be effective, to the business roadmap to ensure your success, the 4 phases of growth throughout this course deliver results.


If you have 2 - 10 hours per week available for 6 - 12 months, and a commitment to water and nature, then you are a good fit for this online training program.
Aerial view of interconnected ponds at Tabula Rasa
The training you need to succeed

Explore the Course

This is a training that considers you the student first and foremost.
This program is accessible to people of all ages and physical capabilities.
Our students find that when they put in the time and energy, the course pays for itself many times over. While it is beneficial for some of the actions to have land access, this is not required to participate.
This is an investment in yourself, to grow your skills and abilities.

Learn more about the content and format of the course, the enrollment options, and what you can expect from the experience. We’ve designed this course to provide you with everything you need to become a water cycle restoration practitioner and restore the health of your lands, waters, and communities.

Whether you’re already an expert, or a total novice

This course will propel

you towards your goals

Still not sure if the course is a good for you?

Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.


Still not sure? Schedule a 15 minute call with

a former student to see if it's right for you.

WHO IS THE

CORE COURSE

PERFECT FOR?

Ecosystem Restoration, Regenerative Agriculture, Natural Resource Professionals, Permaculture Designers, Hydrologists, Academics, Students, etc.

Farmers, Landscapers, Homeowners, Landscape Architects and Designers, Engineers, Ranchers, Property Managers, Homesteaders, Planners, Policymakers, Government, etc.

Concerned Citizens, Academics, NGOs, Civil Stewards, Community Organizers, Watershed and Landscape Advocates and Activists, etc.

People from diverse backgrounds and life stages who are ready to take meaningful action today to create a better shared future

LIVE CORE COURSE 2025

WHY SHOULD

YOU JOIN?

A small dock sits at the edge of a natural pond feature

Whether to safeguard your property from flood, drought, and fire, create a lush oasis in your own backyard, or develop or start a meaningful vocation in ecosystem restoration, this course propels you towards your goals, opening a world of possibilities along the way.


Our world is inundated with environmental and humanitarian crises, and yet the power to heal our planet, providing prosperity and peace, is within our grasp.


This course isn't just about learning water cycle restoration, it's about becoming an agent of change for a better common future. By understanding and implementing these practices, you'll play a vital role in rejuvenating our ecosystems and safeguarding the future of life on Earth.


Empower yourself with the knowledge and tools needed to make a tangible difference on your landscape, in your community, and beyond. Together, let's embrace the opportunity to create a world where the water cycle thrives, nourishing all living beings in its path.

A Once in a Lifetime Experience

Enrollment closes at the end of March

Join students from around the world in our upcoming 2025 Live Core Course. The course begins April 7th and takes place over the subsequent 6 months. You'll be with a group of incredible peers, learning week to week about how to work with water to create a better common future.

Feedback from Students

Brian KerkvlietBrian Kerkvliet

"This Course is not just about water, but about a way to live in and see the natural world. A way to identify opportunities to make your surrounding system thrive with abundance. There's a philosophy, a tool kit, and a methodology offered in this course that cannot be gained anywhere else. The content topics and videos were awesome. The professional design sessions were invaluable to touch base with other students and see how things are going. It's a lifestyle that is very fulfilling. I see not only joy in people, but joy in the ecosystem response, which is amazing! That's what happens when you embrace these kinds of systems."

Becky ThatcherBecky Thatcher

While I have not yet completed the course, I feel I have found a "home."

Aerial view of a river cutting through a forested mountain valley
Water nourishes every living being on our planet.
When we nourish water, it benefits all of life.

Transform your relationship with

water, land and life.

Join the Core Course
Impact Of

The Core Course

We live in a time of crisis; drought, flood, wildfire, water scarcity, mass migration, species extinction, and climate extremes. These problems are massive and can feel overwhelming, yet there are so many things we can do to have a tangible impact when we start working with water and nature. The Core Course takes you on a practical journey, teaching you what to do, how to do it, and even how to make a career out of it.


We live in a time of crisis; drought, flood, wildfire, water scarcity, mass migration, species extinction, and climate extremes.


These problems are massive and can feel overwhelming yet there are so many things we can do to have a tangible impact when we start working with water and nature.


The Core Course takes you on a practical journey, teaching you what to do, how to do it, and even how to make a career out of it.

A tropical waterfall
Aerial view of the Krameterhof, Sepp Holzer's farm in Austria
Create Your Own

Water Abundant Landscapes

The Core Course is your gateway to the fundamental skills needed to retain water on landscapes and recharge aquifers. You might want to create a water abundant landscape on your land, or start a meaningful career building water retention systems, or be a champion of water cycle restoration in your community.


Whatever your background, this course will teach you the how and why of water cycle repair and provide you with the foundational understanding of how to re-hydrate landscapes - no matter how degraded. You will learn the what, why, and how of water cycle repair.

A mind-shifting journey

Actions that lead to experience

Beyond sharing the practical stories and videos, the core course is designed to help you undergo an even more important mental shift that will help you see the landscape in a new way. Each module has a series of actions and activities for you to implement. This is where the real learning will take place, and where you’ll gain the confidence you need to proceed. In the community we share our experiences and learn from each other's approaches and results - a community of practitioners helping, and supporting one another.

An excavator performs earthworks while constructing a water retention feature
The training you need to succeed

Explore the Course

Learn more about the content and format of the course, the enrollment options, and what you can expect from the experience. We’ve designed this course to provide you with everything you need to become a water cycle restoration practitioner and restore the health of your lands, waters, and communities.

The Time Is Now

Change is only achieved through Action

True change is only achieved through action. No one has ever changed the world by sitting on their couch and wishing that someone would do something. The Core Course teaches you how to revive water systems in order to create healthy land, abundant water, and strong regions for generations. Be that someone, do that something. Get started with the Water Stories Core Course.

Sunset over a water retention pond feature, light glistening off the surface
Your Teacher

Meet Your Instructor

Protégé of revolutionary Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer, Zach is the first person to earn the Holzer Practitioner Certification directly from Sepp - through a rigorous two-year apprenticeship. Since his certification, Zach has worked in 23 different countries spanning 6 continents, covering a wide range of climates, contexts, land-forms, and ecosystems implementing Decentralized Water Retention Earthworks.

Zach Weiss and Rajendra Singh facing the camera and smiling, with arms around each other
Zach explaining a water cycle restoration concept in front of a water retention body
Begin Your Journey

Become a Water Cycle Restoration Practitioner

Joining this course is a major step towards fulfilling your calling to heal our waters, lands, and communities.


Whether as a professional, steward, or advocate, this training program will help you reach your goals.

This isn't about giving you a fish, or even teaching you how to fish. It's about training you to create healthy environments wherever you go, so the fish will thrive; benefitting the whole landscape with your efforts!

It's an investment in yourself, your community, and mother earth.

Preview the Course Content

Want to get a better feel for the course? Watch the introduction videos to the course to get a better feel for the content and format, what to expect, and what we expect of you.

Mist cascades over a forest high up in the mountains
READY TO ENROLL?

START

YOUR

JOURNEY

Join the Core Course