Inland Northwest Land Conservancy

INLC's goal is to conserve the natural heritage of the Inland Northwest (eastern Washington and northern Idaho) for the benefit of wildlife, our community, and future generation.

To do this we protect the sanctuaries and connecting corridors that nourish and sustain wildlife. We also work with willing private landowners to conserve working forests that provide wildlife habitat and protect the clean air and clean water of our region as well as provide an economic benefit to rural communities.

We also work with our community partners to connect people with nature so that they understand and appreciate the importance of nature and protected land.

We work with willing private landowners to conserve their own land through donated conservation easements. We also work with other agencies to protect land through fee purchase or purchased easements.

We also work to engage the community with conservation - connecting people with nature through a series of events designed to get people experiencing and enjoying the outdoors. In this way they will learn to love the land and work to protect it for future generations.

Finally, our core responsibility is to protect the lands under conservation easement entrusted to us. We monitor each property at least annually to ensure the conservation restrictions are followed. If necessary, we would file suit to enforce those restrictions.

Conservation Director Chris DeForest has been with INLC since 1997. Over the years Chris has developed deep trust relationships with local landowners - so that when they are ready to protect their land they know that INLC will treat them as valued partners rather than adversaries.

INLC's other staff bring a wide variety of skills and talents. INLC's volunteers are also an important part of our strength - including a GIS specialist who comes in 2 days a week .

INLC has over a $1 million in assets, the income of which can support INLC's core activities into the future. INLC also has a stewardship fund, a special projects fund, and a small endowment.

Inland Northwest Land Conservancy has been protecting land through perpetual conservation easements for decades. In the years since the last accreditation, notable projects include the Richards property. Located at the south end of Hayden Lake in Kootenai County, Idaho, this pristine place is where millions of gallons of water enter the Spokane Valley Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer every single day. The aquifer provides drinking water to over 600,000 residents of the Inland Northwest. In about nine years, this water will once again come into a waterway that is protected by the Conservancy as it bubbles out of the hillside at Waikiki Springs Nature Preserve. The Conservancy owns and manages this 95-acre preserve for public use thanks to a Washington State budget appropriation in 2020.
The Conservancy continues to work with landowners in the Coeur d’Alene River Basin and other members of the Restoration Partnership to secure land along the river for superfund clean-up of legacy mining waste. This highly polluted valley feeds into Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Spokane River, making the protection and restoration of riverbanks and riparian areas critical to community health.
The community of the Inland Northwest has also benefitted from bridge-ownership projects in the region. Rimrock to Riverside represented the connection of two large natural park spaces in Spokane, WA—Palisades Park and Riverside State Park. The permanent protection of the connecting land through INLC’s bridge ownership means an 11-mile corridor dedicated to public enjoyment and wildlife habitat. Prior to turning over ownership and management to the City of Spokane, INLC’s stewardship team organized six months of restoration in the area. This work, in partnership with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, culminated in the organization’s largest-ever community workday. Volunteers planted more than 1,000 native plants and shrubs to help restore wetlands that provide shade and water for animals late into the summer.
Projects like the Waikiki Springs Nature Preserve and Rimrock to Riverside are illustrations of how the Conservancy has evolved in the last several years to partner with and address community priorities. Another partnership that illustrates this value is the organization’s work with Avista Utilities, a significant landowner in the region. The north and south shores of Lake Spokane are now in permanent easement with the Conservancy. Avista also partnered with INLC to put easements on holdings in the Beacon Hill complex, an area popular with the outdoor recreation community and adjacent to several underserved communities in Spokane.
Working to build a community of volunteers and advocates for local land and water feeds into the organizational values of perpetuity and collaboration—creating a culture of conservation that lasts far into the future. As part of this work, the stewardship team has developed a crew of Volunteer Land Stewards, dozens of individuals who spend hun