About five minutes by car from big box stores, restaurants and offices on Sunset Boulevard, tucked among the hardwood trees on Hope Ferry Road, is Wayne Haltiwanger and Teresa Addy-Haltiwanger’s dream home where they will live out their retirement years.

Beside their modern craftsman house, he built a “smoke break cigar lounge” and a garage meant for 10 vehicles. The structures sit on nearly 50 acres of land covered with oak and pine trees, dotted with wildflowers and frequented by birds, butterflies and deer. 

In February, about two months before the couple moved in, Haltiwanger realized that only one thing was missing: a sign that declared the property a certified wildlife habitat. He readied the paperwork and sent it off to the National Wildlife Federation, a Virginia-based conservation group.

“So I’d get my little plaque and stick it in the front yard,” said Haltiwanger, 69, a lifelong Lexington resident. 

He has enjoyed nature since he was a boy, and now, after achieving financial success with his O.B. One telecommunications business, he wants to help preserve nature for the next generation. 

He bought four adjoining lots on Hope Ferry Road, largely to prevent the 47 acres of wooded area from being turned into another subdivision as Lexington County rapidly grows. County residents often speak up at public government meetings or through Facebook, stating they are unhappy with these housing developments potentially causing school overcrowding, the loss of the area’s rural character and increased traffic.

“I’ve had five developers call, wanted to buy,” Haltiwanger said. “Nope.”

His wife, Addy-Haltiwanger, believes in the same conservation mission. “That’s the reason we did this — to help protect the deer,” she said, as the couple gave Chronicle journalists a tour of their land.

While driving around on his Kubota utility vehicle, Haltiwanger pointed out power lines created through a right-of-way on his property. He plans to turn the area into a dove field by planting corn and sunflowers that doves feed on.

He has also installed birdhouses around his home, one of which showed a bluebird incubating five bluish-gray eggs on Friday morning.

Close by was a bird bath, as well as several pieces of bird sculpture, including that of a life-size blue jay that can flap its wings.

Not only does the couple’s property honor nature, but it showcases history, too, featuring a century-old commissary and barn. Haltiwanger has found multiple old farming artifacts across his property, now hung on a wall of the barn, but when asked if it’s history or nature he loves more, his answer was nature.

“Give nature its best chance,” he said.

Wildlife habitats can flourish even in urban and suburban areas, according to the National Wildlife Federation, as long as the locations provide animals such as birds, butterflies, bees and frogs with food, water, cover and a place to raise their young. The habitats should be ecologically sustainable, incorporate native plants, conserve water and not rely on pesticides. 

Federation officials say there are currently 336,000 certified wildlife habitats across North America, including those found in residential backyards, school and church grounds and business locations. Lexington County has 961 certified wildlife habitats, most of them on residential lots.

“Anyone, anywhere can restore wildlife habitat,” David Mizejewski, a wildlife expert with the federation, said in a statement. He described the endeavor as a “fun” and “easy” way to help local wildlife.

Haltiwanger said creating a certified wildlife habitat is also inexpensive, estimating he spent only $20 on seeds to grow more wildflowers. Everything else, he said, was already on the wooded lots he purchased.

The finishing touch to this project is now on his front yard, a green and gold garden sign bearing the words “certified wildlife habitat.”