Derek Fong, The Habitat Restorer
Santa Clarita, Calif. Screen printer and embroiderer

When fires ravaged the Los Padres and Angeles National Forests north of Los Angeles in 2006, Derek Fong, working with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Forest Service, his Santa Clarita Quail Unlimited chapter, and many volunteers, helped raise $12 million for a seven-year project and led a replanting program to bring back wildlife.

Derek Fong doesn't mince words when he talks about the outdoors. "Nobody is going to go out and do conservation work for you," he says. "If you want habitat restored, do it yourself."

Fong, 50, has been active in Quail Unlimited (QU) since 1992. "This project—it's one of many we have done over the years, but it's the big one. We're working on 164,000 acres of public land, planting one tree at a time, acre by acre.

"We found matching seedlings in northern California. But it takes 18 months to grow them to planting size. Then they have to be shipped here and planted in a short period of time. It took 182,000 seedlings just to plant the first 500 acres, so you can see the magnitude of this project."

Fong's QU chapter, with more than 500 members, has won the organization's national habitat and youth in conservation awards for the past five years. Besides these plantings, they are building water guzzlers and repairing access trails.

"We've had help from many volunteers, including Boy and Eagle Scouts, bird--watchers, the condor people, offroaders, backpackers, even local contractors," he says. Fong, who is also president of the Hunter Education Instructor Association of Southern California, has enlisted the aid of his instructors as well. "It's nice to see all these user groups working together."

Fong has a long-term outlook: "I want to help educate my sons and their generation, because if nobody tries to teach them, they won't hunt and fish when they grow up. And they won't have anyplace to go, because the forests will be gone."