Stemple Creek Ranch of Tomales, CA, is the 2025 California Leopold Conservation Award recipient.
The $10,000 award honors farmers, ranchers, and forestland owners who go above and beyond in their management of soil health, water quality and wildlife habitat on working land.
Loren and Lisa Poncia, owners of Stemple Creek Ranch, were presented with the award during the California Farm Bureau Federation’s Annual Meeting on Dec. 8.
Loren Poncia summarizes his story this way: Ranch kid gets bit by the agriculture bug. Kid works in corporate America. Kid comes back to the ranch to build something sustainable and profitable.
When Loren and his wife, Lisa, moved back to Marin County 20 years ago, their goal was to reinvent the family business by raising high quality grass-fed and finished meats. That would require a new spin on how to raise and market sheep and beef cattle.
During their first few years they both kept their day jobs while leasing 400 acres of his family’s land. They bought beef cattle and focused on the infrastructure needed for rotational grazing. That meant investing in miles of movable fencing, dozens of permanent water troughs, and solar pumps that move water to holding tanks.
Today, the organic, grass-finished beef and lamb and pastured pork they raise are sold direct to consumers, grocery stores, restaurants and butcher shops. However, establishing a niche product with its own brand happened one step at a time.
Seventeen years ago, Loren and Lisa designed a logo, put up a simple website, and began selling beef and lamb directly to consumers. As a vendor at one of the largest farmers markets in the country (7 miles away from their home, and only 35 miles from the ranch) their product caught the eye of well-known chefs. Over the course of a decade, they went from selling 10 head of beef to more than 1,500 annually.
After purchasing a neighboring ranch, they rehabbed its buildings as ranch stays and turned an old hay barn into an event venue to host weddings, corporate events, and farm-to-table dinners. Loren’s experience in ag business, and Lisa’s as a practicing attorney, paid dividends as they built their business, which now encompasses a team of 20 employees and thousands of acres managed for grazing.
The 650 acres they own and much of what they lease has Marin Agricultural Land Trust agricultural conservation easements on them. This ensures that the land will be conserved as open space and in productive agricultural use in perpetuity. Their daughters, Avery and Julianna, and their nieces and nephews will be the fifth generation to steward the coastal hills of Marin County.
“We’re trying to dance with Mother Nature within our fencelines,” Loren says of his family’s approach to conservation.
Loren’s father, Al, began fencing off the creeks and riparian areas and planting trees to prevent erosion in the 1980s. Loren and Lisa continued what he started by adding over five miles of fencing and planting 10,000 trees. This restoration effort has created a habitat that attracts beavers, badgers, bobcats, black-tailed deer, jack rabbits, and grey and red foxes. Stemple Creek Ranch is also home to endangered species, including the California red-legged frog and the California freshwater shrimp.
The ranch was certified as bird-friendly by the Audubon Society in 2021 for its sustainable grazing practices. Several species of hawks, owls, and migrating birds seasonally call the ranch home. The Poncias partner with Sola Bee Farms to host pollinating bee hives on the property.
As one of the first demonstration sites for the Marin Carbon Project, a groundbreaking 10-year study, it was one of the first ranches with an active carbon farm plan. They have hosted hundreds of tours to educate others about carbon positive practices, soil health, and rotational grazing.
Just as Loren strives to stimulate the soil and grassland at Stemple Creek Ranch, he’s equally excited about helping others see what is possible when bridging the environmental and economic benefits of conservation. — Sand County Foundation
