Inland Northwest Land Trust focuses its conservation work on the Wild Lifelines -- the network of refuges and connecting corridors that nourish and sustain the wildlife of our region.

Inland Northwest Land Trust preserves Palisades open space with help of local conservation advocate

Craig Volosing and Karen Stevenson purchase land with easement A year, five, even eight in one instance – the timeline from start to finish of a new conservation easement is generally long, sometimes very long. But not this time. John Thornton, a Boise attorney, contacted Inland Northwest Land Trust on November 14, 2002, about donating a conservation easement to INLT by year-end. That was the shortest timeline INLT has faced to date -- in which to evaluate the conservation values of a property, negotiate the terms of an easement, perform the required due diligence and legal review, obtain Board approval and prepare and execute the necessary documentation. The ensuing flurry of activity was considerable, but fruitful. On December 31st INLT’s newest easement went into effect and in early January the property was sold, subject to the conservation easement, to its long-time tenant, Craig Volosing, and his fiancée, Karen Stevenson. The property is a beautiful 40-acre parcel in the Rimrock area just west of the City of Spokane. It adjoins the City’s 450-acre Palisades Park on two sides. As in most of the Rimrock area, the land has shallow soils over basalt, resulting in generally poor drainage and many large rocky outcrops. About a quarter of the Thornton/Volosing property is lowland meadow, which is transformed each Spring into vibrant wetlands frequented by ducks, geese and moose. There are scattered patches of vegetation around the wetland fringes containing aspen and alder, mock orange, hawthorn and dogwood. The remainder of the land is ponderosa pine forest with a grassy ground cover below and a sparsely scattered understory of mallow ninebark, snowberry, Oregon grape, and woods rose. The property’s woodlands and meadow/wetlands provide excellent habitat for many wildlife species. Being contiguous with the park and other as-yet-undeveloped lands, big game travel through fairly often. In addition to moose in the Spring and early Summer months, Craig and Karen often see white-tailed deer and coyote, as well as numerous birds, including wild turkey, pileated and hairy woodpeckers, pheasant, quail, many species of ducks, geese and even great horned owls. (Basalt cliffs located nearby in Palisades Park support communities of great horned owls, cliff swallows, and rock wrens.) They have also found cougar tracks once or twice and mule deer have been spotted on the adjacent land to the northwest. INLT was eager to accept this easement. It fits well within its "Thread of Hope" along the Spokane River. Besides sharing boundaries with Palisades Park, the property is also near the open space of Indian Canyon Park and Golf Course and two other INLT conservation easements in the Rimrock/West Plains area – one on Vic and Robbi Castleberry’s property just south of Indian Canyon Park and one on Pete and Patty Piper’s land just east of the open space buffering Geiger Field. The Thornton conservation easement allows Craig and Karen to construct one additional dwelling on the property (their "retirement home") and to continue their current low-impact ranching and sustainable forestry practices. Craig is best known locally for his career in music (he led the founding of the Spokane Jazz Orchestra and Jazz Society in 1975), but has also contributed tremendously to local conservation efforts over the years. He is a member and currently the vice-chair of the Spokane County Parks Advisory Committee (a.k.a. County Parks Board). He played a leading role in both the 2002 and the 1997 campaigns to win voter support for Conservation Futures, a program that allows Spokane County to purchase important wildlife habitat and scenic open space, and in the selection of projects to receive CF funding. He is also a long-time member and former president of the Backcountry Horsemen and is deeply involved with past and present Palisades activities. "I measure my life’s quality in large part by the number of horseshoes I wear out and how many nights I’m able to spend in my tent," Craig said. "And it’s wonderful to finally have a woman in my life who feels the same way." While D. John Thornton & Associates, P.A. (the actual easement donor), held the property as a real estate investment, Craig Volosing’s deep-rooted passion for this particular land was instrumental in making the easement a reality. An amateur forester and avid naturalist, Craig has been a conscientious steward of the land for over 25 years, and it shows – in the health of the forest and the predominance and diversity of native plant species. A lifelong resident of Spokane, Craig helped a prior owner of the property, Chester Seeley, to build the current A-frame dwelling in 1967-1968. Craig has lived in that house since 1976, renting first from Seeley and later from Thornton. Karen Stevenson, a consultant in the field of nuclear chemistry, joined him there in 2002 and promptly fell in love with the place and the rural lifestyle. Volosing, Stevenson, and Thornton worked together to tailor the easement, with the intention that Craig and Karen would buy the land immediately after Thornton granted the easement to INLT. "I grew up near here and have always loved this place," said Craig. "Karen and I are deeply grateful to the Inland Northwest Land Trust for its critical role in making our dreams come true for the preservation of this precious parcel. Their hard, fast, and effective work must be applauded and appreciated by everyone concerned. This event has inspired us to actively help the Land Trust make further and significant achievements both in our neighborhood and throughout the region." Note: A conservation easement is a way for landowners to permanently protect their land. Inland Northwest Land Trust works one-on-one with landowners to help them tailor an easement to achieve their desires for their land. The land remains in private ownership, but the land trust enforces the land use restrictions specified by the easement donor. These restrictions are permanent – they remain with the land, even if the easement donor passes away or sells the property.