Celebrating the connection between personal health and wild lands
Dear friends and beloveds of Katrina Blair,
It is with deep sadness and eternal gratitude for the epic life lived, we share that our beloved sister, friend, teacher and visionary community leader, Katrina Blair, passed on Friday June 5th, 2026.
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Katrina died peacefully in her family's mountain hut surrounded by the majesty of the La Plata Mountains. She was encircled by the love and song of friends and family at her time of passing.
Katrina lived into the dying process just as she lived her life – with a fearless, joyful, unconditional love.
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About a year ago she began to have some breathing and lung challenges and was given a cancer diagnosis. While she came to acknowledge and accept the diagnosis, she held a wider perspective of the experience. She lived into a healing journey and adventure that authentically aligned with her wild soul.
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In her last months here with us, she embraced her life and community completely. She was ever so vibrant, singing, writing, telling stories, listening to music, and laughing – so much laughter! Her smile and radiance grew brighter every day.
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Daily, she was greeted by friends and family in her sacred home, which she built 30 years ago with the loving, helping hands of her community. Beloveds everyday bringing flowers, stories, food, so many songs, healing hands and vast love - reflecting back to her all the beautiful ways she touched our hearts and lives.
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She was filled with utmost joy by the love that her community shared in her final weeks. She said again and again, many times a day, community was her ultimate medicine. She was truly healed by each and every person who visited, hugged, touched, called, prayed, thought about and wrote to her. She continues to be healed by this love.
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Death is not the measure of whether healing happened and was successful. Her being was so ecstatically whole and healed by the love that the community reciprocated to her magnanimous heart of true love and service.
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A celebration of life for Katrina is being planned for the weekend of the autumn equinox and more information will be coming soon.
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In honor of Katrina's life and legacy, we invite you to make a memorial contribution to support the work of Turtle Lake Refuge. This supports continuing Katrina's mission to foster love and stewardship of the earth, community well-being and personal health.
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Donations will help continue the Turtle Lake Refuge Café, educational programs, regenerative land practices, and community outreach for future generations.
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Please use Colorado Gives to make a donation or checks can be made out to Turtle Lake Refuge and mailed to Rocky Mountain Retreat 848 East Third Ave, Durango, Colorado 81301.
With the deepest gratitude and respect for our Beloved Katrina Blair.
Turtle Lake Refuge is a non-profit, established in 2000, that promotes sustainable practices honoring the wild wisdom of nature and the health of the community. We aim to be a hub of education, inspiration and community collaboration. We achieve this by growing, harvesting and preparing local, wild and living food through our Turtle Cafe and Turtle Lake Community Farm. The Turtle Cafe, located in town, offers a delicious wild, local and living foods lunch
every Tuesday and Friday year round.
The Turtle Lake Community Farm is located 4 miles out of town, grows local produce and is a community gathering space. We sell our locally grown and hand made foods at many restaurants in town, health food stores, and at our booth at Durango Farmer's market. We offer classes teaching about the great values of the wild, edible, and medicinal abundance available in our area, permaculture and holistic health. We grow a variety of microgreens and provide them to local restaurants and stores in the area.
Bee Happy Lands is a project that provides organic weed mitigation service to public and private lands throughout Colorado. Bee Happy Lands is a regenerative land stewardship service that eliminates the need to spray herbicides on land and focuses on sustainable life enhancing practices that increases fertility, stability, and diversity of the ecosystem.
Education is our primary focus through all of our efforts as we build community,
provide healthy foods and inspiration for learning to be better earth stewards
collectively both locally and globally.
tuesday & friday lunches
11:11 AM - 2:22 PM YEAR ROUND!
848 East 3rd Ave in Durango, Colorado
Seating for our cafe is in the back of the building on our patio, or you may dine inside our greenhouse and enjoy the fresh oxygen from our growing microgreens. The patio is a great way to enjoy the sunshine during the summer or winter!
We can deliver lunches and we are on DoorDash! Please give us a call at 970-247-8395.
Turtle lake farm
CLASSES AND EVENTS • INTERNSHIPS • VOLUNTEERING
This is our four-acre farm, located near the actual Turtle Lake about four miles out of town. At this site we have three greenhouses where we grow year round to supplement our lunches, an orchard of hundreds of fruiting trees and shrubs, chemical-free and happy beehives and many organic gardens. .
Volunteer
IN & AROUND DURANGO, CO
We offer our gratitude to all the generosity over the years that makes us who we are. We have been gifted by so much generous volunteer service from our community. Because of this amazing support, we are able to continue to serve our community so well! We are so appreciative of all the generous efforts of so many people who have dedicated their time, their knowledge and their life force towards the health of body, community and earth.
Work with katrina
Katrina Blair's speaking events, classes and walkabouts will be updated as they are booked. Please email us at turtlelakerefuge@yahoo.com if you would like her to come to your area for a slide show, a wild food feast, a plant walk or multi-day wild food walkabout.