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Chris Melançon and Stacey Adams are searching for a place between Santa Barbara and Mendocino where a small regenerative farm, a learning center, and a wildlife rehabilitation practice can take root together.
A brief introduction
If you're a landowner in California who has been thinking about the future of your place — who owns it next, and what happens there — we'd like to introduce ourselves. We're Chris and Stacey. We've spent our careers in the work of stewardship: Chris running farms and advising on soil and ecosystems, Stacey practicing veterinary medicine and caring for the animals people love.
We believe there's a kind of property that doesn't fit neatly into the market — land that its owners want to see used well, not just sold well. If that describes what you're carrying, we hope this page is a useful way to get to know us.
— Chris & Stacey
Boulder, Colorado · where our story began
How we came together
We met in Boulder at a moment when both of our lives were turning. Chris was finishing a graduate program in sustainable food systems at the University of Colorado, having recently stepped down as executive director of Fairview Gardens, one of California's oldest organic farms. Stacey had just sold the animal hospital she had owned and operated in Boulder for twenty years, and was working as a relief veterinarian in Santa Barbara — giving herself the space to ask what came next.
What we discovered, over time, was that we'd been walking toward the same place from different directions — Chris through food systems, ecology, and land management; Stacey through animal medicine and the bonds between people and the creatures they care for. We both wanted a life rooted in a particular piece of ground, and we both believed that land, well tended, has more to give than any single enterprise can receive.
This page is our attempt to describe that belief concretely enough that someone might recognize themselves in it.
The two of us
Ecologist · Farmer · Falconer
Chris has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of agriculture, ecology, and community. He served as executive director of Fairview Gardens, a historic 12-acre urban farm in Santa Barbara, where he led operations, education, and land management. He now works as a consultant in ecology and ecosystem services, focused on soil, water, and plant tissue analysis for landowners and agricultural operations across the West.
Beyond his professional work, Chris is a licensed falconer with prior experience at the Sonoma County Bird Rescue Center, and he holds direct experience implementing and monetizing conservation easements in both California and Colorado.
Veterinarian · Practice Builder
Stacey is a doctor of veterinary medicine who owned and operated an animal hospital in Boulder, Colorado for twenty years before selling the practice and beginning a new chapter. She currently works as a relief veterinarian in Northern California, providing medical care across a range of clinics and giving her a broad, current view of animal health in the region.
She is, by her own description, in the midst of defining what comes next professionally — and a working farm or ranch is the environment in which her ideas take their most natural shape. At the center of them is a longstanding interest in the bond between humans and animals: the ways that relationship shapes both, and the therapeutic and educational possibilities that open when it's honored. On land of our own, Stacey anticipates partnering with therapists and other practitioners on programs rooted in that work, alongside consulting on animal welfare.
What we'd build
What we want to lead is a regenerative operation — a thriving ecosystem of perennials, limited annuals, small ruminants grazing for dairy, and therapeutic and educational programs for all ages. Not a single-crop farm. Not a single-purpose retreat. A place where small enterprises cross-pollinate — where the goats feed the cheese, the cheese feeds the classes, the classes bring the people who come back for the raptor talks, the raptors draw the therapists, and so on. A working landscape with many reasons to exist.
Small-scale, diversified food enterprises chosen for the land, the region, and the realities of water. Nothing extractive; nothing at a scale that can't be stewarded well.
Education woven into the working life of the farm, both in person and online, serving adults who want practical skills and — where the local community welcomes it — families and kids.
Programs that bring people into contact with the natural world and with each other — drawing on Stacey's veterinary background, Chris's work with raptors, and partnerships with outside practitioners.
How we think about land
Land isn't a canvas we paint ourselves onto. It's something we join — already whole, with its own history, its own water, its own neighbors and weather and moods — and our job is to learn it well enough to add something rather than subtract.
Our approach to any property we steward begins with listening. What has this place been? What does the soil tell us, what does the water tell us, what does the neighboring community tell us? Chris's consulting work — soil, water, and plant tissue analysis — is essentially a practice of listening carefully to land before making decisions about it.
We're also deeply interested in conservation easements as a tool for protecting land in perpetuity. Chris has direct experience implementing and monetizing them in both California and Colorado, and we'd welcome conversations with landowners who see easements as part of their legacy plan.
What we're looking for
We're holding our criteria loosely enough to meet the right place where it is, and firmly enough to know it when we see it. The following is meant to open a conversation rather than close one.
A note on housing
If the right property doesn't come with housing, it doesn't have to be a dealbreaker. We've purchased two 20-foot shipping containers and a 20-foot Airstream specifically with the intention of building an off-grid mobile encampment that can travel with us to whatever land we end up tending.
Chris has initial designs for how the pieces come together. It's a project, and we know it — but it's also the kind of thing that transforms a property's options. Land that wouldn't pencil for another buyer because it lacks a dwelling can work beautifully for us.
What we bring
Whatever arrangement makes sense, we come prepared. Here's what a landowner can expect from a partnership with us.
Our aim is a path to ownership, and we're financially prepared to pursue it — with savings, stable income, and a willingness to structure a transaction that respects both sides. We can provide references and documentation at the appropriate stage.
Chris would be available to work the land full-time from day one, bringing together his experience in ecology, farm operations, and falconry. His consulting practice is structured to flex around a primary commitment to the property.
Stacey continues as a relief veterinarian in Northern California, providing steady income as she defines and establishes her own programs on the land. The vision will be built in phases, never at the expense of our ability to meet obligations.
Chris has run a historic California farm, advised landowners on ecosystem services, implemented conservation easements, and rehabilitated raptors. This isn't a first attempt; it's a next chapter.
Stacey's DVM and practice-building experience bring a level of care for livestock, wildlife, and program animals that most small farms don't have in-house.
For landowners thinking about what comes after them, we're open to conversations about conservation easements, ongoing relationships, honoring a property's history, and keeping families connected to land they've loved.
We're not in a rush to settle for a property that almost fits. We'd rather wait for a conversation that starts with mutual recognition and build from there.
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Let's talk
There's no script for these conversations. A phone call, a coffee, a slow walk across your land — we're grateful for any of them. If it helps, we're comfortable signing NDAs, providing references, and moving at whatever pace suits you.