For millennia, seasons in the Inland Northwest were marked by salmon moving through our waterways and creating symbiotic and sustaining relationships with the local ecosystem. A keystone species for the INW, salmon have been cut off from some of their historic habitat in the Upper Columbia Basin for more than 100 years. But the Upper Columbia United Tribes hopes to change that in the coming decades. They are in the midst of a 20-year plan to bring the salmon home and provide healing for lands, waters, and people long bereft of their presence.
This collaborative effort has received substantial support from a wide breadth of stakeholders, including state and federal legislators. Inland Northwest Land Conservancy (INLC) has been thrilled to support these efforts in direct partnership with the Spokane Tribe of Indians by protecting land along the Little Spokane River. In 2021, Spokane Tribal Fisheries released 50 Chinook salmon into the Little Spokane River at Waikiki Springs Nature Preserve—owned and managed by INLC since 2020.
This August, the Tribe released another 50 salmon into the Little Spokane River at Glen Tana Farm, another active project area of INLC. The permanent protection of lands and waters where our community can experience and fall in love with the natural world is at the core of INLC’s mission to conserve, care for, and connect with lands and waters essential to life in the Inland Northwest. Learn more about our work at InlandNWLand.org.
