The Dandelion Festival is an avenue to celebrate spring and organic land stewardship with our community brought to you by Turtle Lake Refuge!

We want to thank Cavers Brewing for collaborating with us over the many years by transforming our locally wild harvested dandelions and thistles into the seasonal beer elixir  - The Dandelion Saison.  It will be served in the beer garden at the festival.  It can also be purchased at Carvers until it runs out.

The festival will take place rain or shine. If possible please carpool. Dogs are welcome with awareness and care for others' needs and comfort levels. Please know your dog's nature and be mindful and respectful to all.

Pre-Dandelion Fest Event Friday, May 3rd

 Wild Food Lunch $20 - 12pm- 2pm held at Turtle Cafe 848 East 3rd. Durango

 Free Land Blessing  and Soil Ecology Workshop held at 4pm-6pm

Held at the SOIL Lab at 2900 Mesa  
With special guests - James Wieser, soil scientist and Beverly Castaneda, Indigenous facilitator 

After Earth Blessings Ceremony, we will create a 'Mother Patch' soil plot for the health of our greater community.

Mother Dedication Flyer (click here)

HELP US TO GROW!

“To celebrate the connection between personal health and wild lands.” Turtle Lake Refuge has been actively supporting a healthy quality of life in Durango for over 20 years through our wild foods café, local food production, sustainable practices education, and organic land stewardship advocacy.

We practice organic land stewardship through our Organically Managed Parks Program in Durango. Our goal is to make all of the public parks and open spaces in Durango free from the use of herbicides and chemical fertilizers. The City of Durango currently has eight city parks and twenty acres of park land that are organically managed! In collaboration with the city parks and recreation department, Turtle Lake Refuge’s Organically Managed Parks program is responsible for managing Brookside Park, Needham Elementary Park and the Animas River Trail.

We also provide regenerative land stewardship within southwestern Colorado through our Bee Happy Lands Program. Through a process of remediating disturbed land, we are able to create stabilized, fertile and healthy soil. Our goal is to support the native ecosystems by building healthy soil to grow forage for the honey bee population and local pollinators and promote the health of our children, grandchildren and multispecies community. We currently have projects in Durango, Mancos, Ophir, Ridgeway, Sawpit Telluride and Chromo Colorado and with individual homeowners in the area.

As our land stewardship programs have continued to grow so has our need to expand and upgrade equipment. Your donation will greatly assist us on the path to purchasing an enclosed utility trailer and truck to take to our organically managed land sites.  Your support and contribution are greatly appreciated!

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer please visit us at Turtle Lake Refuge for volunteer information and much more!