The Glen Tana story: Bridging the past and the future
February 14, 2025
In partnership with Washington State Parks and the Spokane Tribe of Indians, Glen Tana will now be protected for its value as salmon habitat.
November 11, 2024 – By Corey Himrod, Land Trust Alliance Media and Relations Manager
Through a unique partnership between Washington State Parks, Inland Northwest Land Conservancy, and the Spokane Tribe of Indians, more than 1,000 acres just north of Spokane, Washington, has been permanently conserved*.
Glen Tana is an iconic 1,060 acres of land that includes nearly two miles of land along the Little Spokane River. The upland ponderosa pine forest, already adjacent to Riverside State Park, opens up miles of possibilities for increasing access to the outdoors for the community and more opportunities for people to connect with nature.
Once proposed as a 120+ housing development, the property provides habitat, water access and an important migration corridor for moose, elk, deer, coyotes, beavers, eagles, cougars and countless native plants.
“First and foremost, our hope is that the public engage with the land in a way that inspires a conservation ethic that then drives more land protection into the future,” said Dave Schaub, executive director of Inland Northwest Land Conservancy, speaking about Glen Tana.
And then there’s the salmon.
For millennia, every summer, the Little Spokane River teemed with salmon and steelhead returning to the waters of their birth to spawn and die. Along with the returning fish came the Spokane Tribe to celebrate, honor, and harvest them. But, over the course of the last 100 years, dams on the Columbia River and other local waterways have blocked the summer salmon migration and fundamentally altered the regional ecosystem and way of life of Indigenous tribes.
As noted in a story in the Spokane Spokesman-Review, the Upper Columbia United Tribes — the Couer d’Alene Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Kalispel Tribe, the Kootenai Tribe and the Spokane Tribe — have worked for many years to bring salmon back to the region.
In partnership with Washington State Parks and the Spokane Tribe of Indians, Glen Tana will now be protected for its value as salmon habitat.
“We’ve been working in partnership with the Inland Northwest Land Conservancy along with the Spokane Tribe and Washington State Park Service to secure over 1,000 acres of land, which is this beautiful place and in The Spokane Tribe’s ancestral territory,” said Monica Tonasket, secretary of the Spokane Tribal Council.
The Tribe will build and manage a fish-rearing facility along the two miles of the Little Spokane River. At the same time, the state will manage the uplands for the enjoyment, education and well-being of the human community.
Two summers ago, members of the Spokane tribe, along with representatives from the conservancy and the state, came together to release about 50 chinook salmon back into the river.
“That whole stretch of water, knowing that this is going to be a future location for the Spokane Tribe to be able to rear juvenile salmon, to be able to be there in that space and time and being able to reflect back on the past and our ancestors,” Tonasket said. “I also got to get in the water and release those salmon along with my children. It’s just a very special moment, one that will be in my memory for all the rest of my life, and I’m so glad that I was able to give my children that memory as well.”
“That whole stretch of water, knowing that this is going to be a future location for the Spokane Tribe to be able to rear juvenile salmon, to be able to be there in that space and time and being able to reflect back on the past and our ancestors,” Tonasket said. “I also got to get in the water and release those salmon along with my children. It’s just a very special moment, one that will be in my memory for all the rest of my life, and I’m so glad that I was able to give my children that memory as well.”
A 2019 study found more than 700 miles of potential chinook habitat in the region, and Indigenous biologists from the area’s tribes have tagged and released thousands of salmon smolt — named for the change they go through that will allow them to survive the move from freshwater to saltwater. In tracking the smolt, biologists hope to identify areas of river where improvements will be needed to allow for fish passage.
Additional work at Glen Tana includes the Inland Northwest Land Conservancy constructing a nursery** to hold up to 5,000 native plants, where they can grow to maturity without the threat of hungry moose and deer devouring them. The nursery will also be open to both the Tribal community as well as state agencies to grow plants for restoration.
“The time that I’ve spent here is really grounding me in this work and I love sharing it with my family,” said Schaub. “I love coming out here alone and being contemplative in the space, and I look forward to others having that opportunity as well.”
*Glen Tana is still closed to the public. Visit Glen Tana and join us on a guided hike! See a list of upcoming hikes on our events page.
**See pages 14 and 15 of our Fall 2024 Newsletter for updates!
Questions about the Glen Tana project or want to get involved? Click to send us an email or call 509-328-2939.