Volunteer Land Steward Program

The Conservation Community (that’s you!) has helped Inland Northwest Land Conservancy to conserve over 27,000 acres of the beautiful wildlife habitats, waters, healthy forests, open spaces, and recreational lands that are essential to life in our region. Now it’s time to get to work caring for the lands we’ve protected!

One of the ways you can help is by becoming a Volunteer Land Steward! Stewards will design and complete habitat enhancement projects, monitor trails, educate public land users, and note wildlife, vegetative, and hydrologic trends on the land.

Your extra eyes and ears on the land help us to be more responsive land managers and your extra hands ensure that important projects get completed quickly.

The Volunteer Land Steward Program is a great fit for you, if:

You want to explore new places and enjoy being active in nature

You are interested in citizen science

You like taking initiative

You are good at educating the public on the work you’re doing and how they can help the land too

You like working independently or as part of a small group

You are tech savvy and willing to learn our app-based monitoring software

You want to be part of a strong stewardship community

Becoming a Steward

Phase One: Attend a Training

To become a steward, volunteers must complete a 1.5-hour training with Inland Northwest Land Conservancy stewardship staff. This training outlines the steward’s role as INLC ambassadors, monitoring and reporting protocols, and safety in the field.

The Conservancy hosts Volunteer Land Steward trainings twice per year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Keep your eyes on our events page for the next training.

Click to view events page

Becoming a Steward

Phase Two: Select a Property

Once you’ve attended the training, you can select a property from the list below. If you’re not sure what property you’d like to steward, please reach out to Rose Richardson. We’ll discuss what kind of projects you’d like to work on, how far you’re willing to drive to steward your site,

what landscape features you enjoy being near while you’re outdoors, etc. to get you matched with a place you’ll love.

When you’ve selected a property, we’ll send you some information about the property to get you oriented, including:

A baseline report – an inventory of species found on the property and a general description of the landscape.
Printable property maps
A digital Landscape handbook

Becoming a Steward

Phase Three: Schedule a Site Visit

The last step of the training process is a site visit to the property you’ve selected. INLC stewardship staff will walk you through heavily used trails, “hot spots” or areas that frequently see issues like garbage”, “photo points” or areas that are likely to change and should be repeatedly visited, and go over your Land Steward Report Form and how to use it in the field.

Volunteer Land Steward Program

The Volunteer Land Steward Program is a great fit for you, if: