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The Poncia family has lived and farmed on the same ranch site in Tomales, California since Angelo Poncia, the family's first immigrant to the United States from Italy, settled here in 1902. Today, Angelo’s grandson and great-grandson still operate the family’s business raising all natural, grass-fed beef and lamb. The Poncias are proud of their family history and of the ranch land that they have stewarded for the past 100+ years. The land is an extension of their family, with Stemple Creek winding through the rolling hills and emptying into the Pacific Ocean just a few miles west of our home.
Stemple Creek Ranch values biodiversity in its pastures and riparian areas and the Poncias strive to work with Mother Nature to keep the land abundant and animals healthy and happy. They accomplish this by using a variety of techniques, including protecting creeks and adjacent land with cattle crossings, utilizing electric fences that can be reconfigured in response to changing conditions, planting native species on creek banks and carefully monitoring grazing to allow these areas to remain productive and protect them from overuse. The Poncias’ goal is to give each pasture at least sixty days of rest before the animals are rotated back into it. They have fenced off over three miles of creek beds at Stemple Creek and planted over 1,000 trees to help control erosion, provide shade to cool the creeks and create habitat for birds to nest.
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