Year Inducted: 2020
Region VI
Wells, NV
Boies Ranch is a cow-calf operation located in northeastern Nevada and owned by Steve and Robin Boies. The Boies Family has owned the ranch since 1950s and past Boies family members were ranching in the area since the early 1900s. The ranch consists of approximately 13,000 privately owned acres and approximately 112,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) federal land, licensed under a BLM livestock permit and these parcels of land provide important habitat for wildlife species of regulatory concern including Greater Sage-Grouse and Columbia Spotted Frog.
Meet Steve and Robin Boies of Boies Ranch from Wells, Nevada! Through continual innovations and improvements to manage their land and care for their cattle, Steve and Robin work with the objective to leave their land better than ever before.
While production of livestock is the primary land use of Boies Ranch, the operation has contributed to the funding of multiple Greater Sage-Grouse habitat enhancement projects conducted on both the private and public lands they manage. While a potential listing of Greater Sage-Grouse is not immediately looming, regulatory provisions outlined in land use plan amendments developed for Greater Sage-Grouse will weave into the overall operation of the Boies Ranch as they are unveiled and implemented.
“We adopted the concept of a triple bottom line of ecological sustainability, economic resilience and the preservation of social and cultural diversity”
Boies said. “Our goals are focused on maintaining land health on public and private lands and sustaining wildlife habitat across boundaries of private and public ownership. All of this while staying economically viable converting the sun’s energy into protein and preserving the culture and practice of family ranching traditions.”
Embracing innovation in management, marketing and solution-based cooperation with partners, the Boies Ranch has been working with state and federal partners for the past 30 years. This has resulted in a long list of accomplishments, some of which include a four-mile pipeline that feeds a gravity fed sprinkler system replacing an open ditch irrigation system dating back to 1965, 15 spring and meadow riparian areas fenced to protect wildlife and Greater Sage-Grouse brood rearing habitat and ponds to provide water for wildlife, and increases of native plants like white sage and Great Basin wild rye. Native plants have been able to exhibit their potential because of strict seasonal rest cycles instituted by the Boies family.
“We have enjoyed an amazing opportunity. If we can pass this land on to our children and grandchildren, pass on the values of building community and being good stewards, we will have done okay in this lifetime on this amazing planet,”
