Once a winter-run creek, the Lange family returned the Gil Creek riparian area back to its native state. Before their restoration efforts, which began 12 years ago, only two oak trees were growing in the back center of the lake. The Lange family’s River Ranch, planted to Zinfandel wine grapes in the 1940s, was a little boy’s dream. With more than a mile of riverfront property, it offered fishing, exploring, hunting, wildlife, and other adventures that captivate children. But years of farming and cattle grazing had reduced the riparian area to grasses and weeds, and much of the wildlife had […]