Enhanced Stewardship

INLC’s newest initiative is the Enhanced Stewardship program, which can be broken down into three fundamental parts: building landscape knowledge, climate action planning, and serving our community.

Analyzing the changes to the landscape over time will help us strategize future protection and restoration. This will involve working with local experts and partners to get a better picture of our landscape. It will also involve support from local citizen scientists to monitor lands closely for important climate indicators.

By definition, Climate Action is a strategic effort to reduce emissions, sequester carbon, protect and restore resilient landscapes, and promote careful resource use through education. We aim to be a leader within our Inland Northwest community in Climate Action, using specialized restoration tactics, calculated carbon capture, and carefully prioritizing our protection efforts. And as the climate changes, our methods will too, to ensure that our Climate Action plans are truly effective.

The third component may be the most important: serving our community. We believe that getting people outside in the fresh air, among the trees, and on the water is critical for building community and connectivity, so we’re creating more opportunities to do so! We’re going to boost the number of hikes, work parties, citizen science trips, Field Fridays, and implement a land steward program. INLC wants to ensure that the outdoors is accessible to everyone and that there are lots of opportunities to do good work for the land.

Protecting critical habitats from development is a big, first step in the right direction! But there is so much more we can do to enhance those lands, combat climate change, and serve our community. Together, we can make great things happen!