This summer, Spokane County purchased 385 acres of land for a natural park, using funding from the Conservation Futures tax and a grant from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program. This is the first phase of a plan to acquire a total of 1,100 acres on Antoine Peak overlooking Spokane Valley.

Antoine Peak is within two miles of Spokane Valley. “That’s about as ‘Near Nature, Near Perfect’ as you can get,” says INLT Executive Director Chris DeForest. “INLT nominated Antoine Peak for Conservation Futures because of its value as wildlife habitat and for recreation. There’s nothing else like it this close to town.”

“This is a really popular acquisition,” says Spokane County park ranger Bryant Robinson. According to Robinson, Antoine Peak will be open for many of the same uses as other Conservation Futures parks – for instance, horseback riding, hiking, and nature watching. The County, working with WDFW, plans to optimize recreational opportunities while minimizing impact to wildlife.

Howard Ferguson of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) says that Antoine Peak provides significant habitat for wildlife. The low elevation and southern exposure of the mountain provide important winter range for many species including moose, elk, and white-tailed deer. The north side serves as wonderful cover from the summer sun and is also the start of the travel corridor to Mt Spokane. “The property provides an un-fragmented corridor for all wildlife between Antoine and Mt Spokane State Park and habitat areas north of Spokane” says Ferguson.

An additional benefit of conserving Antoine Peak as undeveloped open space is that it will help protect water quality in the Little Spokane and Middle Spokane watersheds as well as the Spokane Aquifer.

As of this writing, it looks like voters approved extending the Conservation Futures tax indefinitely. The tax raises about $1 million a year to buy and maintain natural land for conservation and recreation.

Spokane County’s Conservation Futures Program is intended to protect, preserve, maintain, enhance, restore, limit the future use of or otherwise conserve selected open space land, farmland, forests, wetlands, wildlife habitats, and other lands having significant recreational, social, scenic or aesthetic values within the boundaries of Spokane County. Acquired properties will not be developed as a typical park (no ball fields, playgrounds, irrigated turf, etc) but kept in an enhanced natural state.

The County recently completed a parking area for the McKenzie Conservation Area at Newman Lake. To learn more about Conservation Futures parks, visit their website at www.spokanecounty.org/parks/conservation.asp or call 509-477-4730.