Colvin Ranch Day 2025

This year we're celebrating the 20th anniversary of our NRCS conservation easement, and we'd love for you to join us! 

We'll have live music featuring Oly Mountain Boys, delicious New York Strip steak sandwich lunch boxes from Simply Organic Cafe & Catering, ranch tours, wildflower walks, and fun activities for the kids.

What: Colvin Ranch Day

When: Sunday, May 18 from 11:00 am - 3:00 pm

Where: 16816 Old Highway 99 SE, Tenino, Washington 98859

Schedule:

11:00 am: Welcome! 

11:30 am: Colvin Ranch Conservation Partner Award presentation

12:00 pm: Boxed lunches available for pickup

12:15 pm: Ranch tours begin

1:00 pm: Wildflower walks with NRCS

2:00 pm: Wildflower walks with NRCS

3:00 pm: Day is done!

Lunch

Order your steak sandwich lunch box in advance to make sure you get one before we're sold out! The lunch box includes a steak sandwich featuring our grass-fed, grass-finished New York Strip steak, roasted garlic aioli, heirloom tomato, thin shaved romaine, thin sliced onion, plus cucumber salad and potato salad on the side, with a double fudge drop cookie for dessert.

Exhibitors

Exhibitors include 24 Carrots 4-H, Center for Natural Lands Management, Community Farm Land Trust, Ecostudies Institute, Joint Animal Services, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Southwest Washington Food Hub, Thurston Conservation District, Thurston County Cattlewomen, Thurston County Noxious Weed Control Board, Thurston County Stream Team, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington Conservation Commission, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Farm Bureau, Wolf Haven International, WSU Extension.

20 Years of Conservation 

In 2005, Colvin Ranch was the first in Washington to obtain a permanent NRCS conservation easement to preserve the native prairies and ensure that the ranch would remain in agriculture forever. Over the past 20 years, we've accomplished a lot through the implementation of conservation grazing practices and ongoing habitat restoration projects. A few highlights:

• we planted 1,900 trees to reduce erosion along Scatter Creek
• we increased plant diversity by 20%
• we now have more than 160 different plant species that thrive here, including more than 28 critical plants needed for the endangered Taylor's checkerspot butterfly
• we've seen a demonstrated increase in Mazama pocket gopher activity
• we contributed to the recovery of the Golden paintbrush and its removal from the federal list of endangered and threatened plants 
• and now we're bringing our model of conservation grazing to public lands for the benefit of the broader prairie ecosystem