Far removed from the screechy debates surrounding the spotted owl and salmon, this nonprofit organization is celebrating its 10th year of preserving land in the face of relentless sprawl.

The trust negotiates conservation easements with landowners who would like to keep their land undeveloped for future generations. In return for preserving the land, owners get a tax break. When the land is sold the new owner is bound by the easement.

In 10 years, the trust has secured 3,600 acres worth $7 million in seven counties in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. It has also drawn praise from environmentalists and property rights advocates and cooperation from businesses.

Open spaces and a rural feel are part of what makes the Inland Northwest special. But like the rest of the West, our region is rapidly succumbing to pressures that swallow up the land.

That's where conservation comes in. Land trusts fill an important conservation niche because many of the properties don't fit the specifications of groups like the Nature Conservancy. Plus, the land remains private. So, a farmer or rancher can keep working the land and make sure that it is never subdivided to accommodate urban sprawl.

Acre by acre, the Inland Northwest Land Trust has helped ensure that our region will retain respites from the housing tracts, businesses and asphalt that relentlessly transform our landscape. Examples abound:

•About 150 acres in the Lake Pend Oreille area have been secured to preserve trout habitat. In negotiating the deal the trust brought together Avista Corp., Trout Unlimited, Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club, River Network and the state of Idaho.

•Inland Empire Paper donated 48 acres near Mirabeau Point to the trust.

•Robbi and Vic Castleberry agreed to preserve 16 acres adjoining Indian Canyon-Palisades Park.

•Mary Grace Bennett protected a five-acre tip of a Newman Lake peninsula that shelters eagles and osprey.

•Jane and Channing Bowen put their eight acres above Glenrose Prairie into a trust.

Sprawl is not the only consideration for those entering into trusts. Some landowners want to preserve the heritage their land represents. Land that remains unchanged decade after decade helps keep generations rooted to each other and offers familiar havens from a rapidly changing world. As Betty Brown said when she and her husband decided to preserve their 238 acres in Colbert, "The grandkids love to go down to the crick."

Thanks to the Inland Northwest Land Trust, her grandkids' grandkids will be able to do the same.

Gary Crooks/For the editorial board

Land Trusts may look like a viable option to all the regulation coming down on landowners.  But are they really?  Read more about Land Trusts here. Click here.

Urban sprawl?  Not.  Click here.