California couple restores 136-acre farm into thriving wildlife habitat

Peter Hunter kneels beside a clump of young willows clinging to the edge of Dry Creek. The slender shoots are leafless but supple, a faint tinge of red promising spring growth. On the bank above him, Hunter eyes hundreds of seedlings, cottonwoods, redbud, and other shrubs pushing up through protective plastic tubes into the pale winter sun. Native grass seeds rest under a layer of mulch, waiting for the rains to release them. This scene, captured in a story originally published by Audubon magazine, is the result of decades of patient work by Peter and his wife, Debbie. In 1988, the couple began restoring vegetation to their 136-acre family farm near Davis, California. What started as a personal commitment to the land has grown into a thriving habitat for birds, quail and even cougars, offering a hopeful model for conservation in one of the world’s great breadbaskets.A long-term vision“This may not look like great bird habitat,” says Hunter, a genial, ruggedly built farmer with a thick shock of white hair. But he can envision a multilayered hedgerow in just a few seasons, a place where warbling vireos will forage in the canopy and a resident bobcat can find cover in the undergrowth....