Transforming Their Dunnigan Hills Farm into Wildlife Habitat

For over a century, native plants on a 250 acre ranch in Zamora have had to wait while the land around them was dryland farmed to grains and forages.  Four years ago Rachael and David Long stopped farming half the land and rejuvenated part of it with Purple needlegrass, allowing hardy native plant seeds that survived the farming era (such as Lupine, Owls clover, Milkweed, Tarweed, and Vinegar weed) to spring forth and contribute to the renewal of the ranch.

The Longs bought the 250 acres of highly erodible farmland on County Road 91B in the Dunnigan Hills in 1999. Their concern for the land and love for wildlife inspired them to begin restoration projects the year they bought the heavily farmed ranch. Today, after just a few years of conservation planning and implementation, pheasants burst forth from the 25-acre field of Purple needlegrass, and snake skins, curled around the base of the native grasses, leave traces of a prosperous wildlife.  Around one of the three ponds the Longs installed to reduce sediment from reaching the Colusa Drain are footprints of killdeer, raccoon, ducks and deer. 

It still takes a bit of imagination to envision the land as a wildlife habitat – Yellow starthistle still competes for space and water; gullies caused from erosion are still unfilled.  But watching barn swallows dip and takeoff like a military touch and go exercise as they drink of the sweet rain water captured within one of the carefully graded ponds -- one can imagine a future of restoration where fledgling cottonwoods and willows grow into an ecosystem that eliminates soil erosion, crowds out noxious weeds and provides wildlife habitat and fodder.

“We have 115 acres in the Conservation Reserve Program (managed by Yolo County Farm Service Agency)” Rachael said.  “In 2001 we planted 25 acres with native grasses.  We even see deer out here now.”

Years of dryland farming – where the land is left fallow and cleared during the summer months then planted in the fall -- has caused sheet and rill erosion, exposing subsoils on the hill tops. For years, hundreds of gallons of water have washed over the land into neighboring farms, causing flooding and dumping tons of sediment into the Colusa Basin Drain.  The three ponds now capture a lot of this water and a drainage system controls the runoff. 

When it’s not wet from winter rains, the tired soil holds little moisture and native plants must compete with vigorous weeds.  To encourage native plant growth the Longs have installed a creative solar pump system using an old domestic well near Oat Creek, located on the east end of the property.  The pump delivers the water to a hilltop tank which then gravity feeds the life-giving resource through a drip irrigation system to the Coyotebrush, Coffeeberry and willows surrounding the ponds.  The Longs also installed 2000 feet of PVC pipe to deliver the water to a half-mile-long hedgerow they planted for wildlife habitat on the north side of the ranch.

Once established, the shrubs and trees will require minimal irrigation and their deep roots will allow the soil to hold more water, reducing runoff.

“Upper watershed management like the Longs implemented means less runoff in the lower watershed.  I wish more people in the Dunnigan Hills would follow their example,” said Phil Hogan, Yolo County NRCS district conservationist. “Water will still run off, but with these efforts it will be cleaner and create less flooding potential in the lower watershed.”

Article by Barbara Fleck for the Yolo County RCD "Conservation Quarterly", Volume 9, Issue 2, Summer 2005.