This just in from Inland Northwest Land Trust:
Conservation efforts protect forest and farm land in Cougar Bay
Another 119 acres in the Cougar Bay area are now permanently protected from unwanted development. Joyce Randall chose to honor her parents, John and Betty Heine, by protecting her family’s historic dairy land overlooking Cougar Bay near Coeur d’Alene. Inland Northwest Land Trust worked with Joyce Randall to create aconservation easement that permanently restricts development and subdivision so the land will for ever remain as for est and meadow.
The Heine property is the latest achievement in the ef for t to protect Cougar Bay and the surrounding land. Cougar Bay provides important wildlife habitat as well as offers scenic views from Coeur d’Alene. Over the past decade, the Bureau of Land Management, Kootenai County, The Nature Conservancy and Inland Northwest Land Trust have protected over 700 acres in the area.
Ms. Randall’s parents, John and Betty Heine, spent their lives upon the land they loved and expressed their wish to conserve the land in perpetuity. “They loved the land and they wanted to see a healthy for est and wildlife habitat that survived for the future,” said Ms. Randall.
The land provides habitat for black bear, elk, badgers, and porcupine. Also, many birds such as Pileated woodpecker, Junco, quail, Northern Flicker and Swainson’s Thrush nest in the area. The plant and tree life is abundant with ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, shooting stars, glacier lilies, and spring beauties. Ms. Randall recalled, “My father just had such a huge love and respect for the woods. I remember him picking up plants after a washout and marveling at the leaves and roots.”
A conservation easement is a voluntary, legally binding agreement that limits certain types of uses or prevents development from taking place on a piece of property, generally in perpetuity, to protect the property’s ecological and open-space values. The landowner continues to own and manage the land. The Heine property is the 44th conservation easement that Inland Northwest Land Trust holds.
Formed in 1991, Inland Northwest Land Trust is a local non-profit organization that works with willing private landowners to protect the region’s natural lands, waters, and working farms and for ests for the benefit of wildlife, our community and future generations. INLT has helped protect over 12,000 acres of prime habitat and working forests in eastern Washington and northern Idaho.
According to the Land Trust Alliance’s 2010 National Land Trust Census, organizations like Inland Northwest Land Trust have conserved over 10 million acres since 2005 despite a down economy. The census is online atwww.lta.org/census.
Photos available upon request. Visit our website at www.inlandnwlandtrust.org for a sampling of available images.
For Ms. Randall’s contact information and for more on this story, contact Chris DeForest at 509-328-2939 or cdeforest@inlandnwlandtrust.org or Vicki Egesdal (contact info below).
Vicki Egesdal
Director of Development
Inland Northwest Land Trust
35 W Main Ave Ste 210
Spokane WA 99201
509-328-2939
509-328-4733 fax
vegesdal@inlandnwlandtrust.org
www.inlandnwlandtrust.org
Protecting the region’s natural lands, waters, and working farms and forests for the benefit of wildlife, our community, and future generations.
We’re all about the “nature” in “near nature, near perfect.”
