Latah Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries Heritage Project
(LEAF)
Latest News
LEAF is not affiliated with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.
Letter of Support to the Coeur d’Alene Tribe
Coeur d’Alene Tribe
Plummer, ID
September 15, 2021
Tribal Chair and Council,
On behalf of the individuals and organizations that comprise the Latah Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries Heritage Project (LEAF), we would like to express our strong support for the purchase of the Pilcher property by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. We are grateful for the Tribe’s persistence and deep vision that resulted in this successful acquisition.
The LEAF Heritage Project group formed last year to investigate and promote a strategy for protecting and conserving the 48-acre property of historical significance along Hangman Creek which faced the possibility of becoming a high-density housing development. The LEAF group’s efforts to develop a public acquisition plan did not meet with success although we were able to raise awareness about the value of the property as open space. We are pleased that the assistance we were able to provide the Coeur d’Alene Tribe played a significant role and contributed to this momentous outcome.
LEAF committed to a strategy that met the following criteria and principles:
• Protection of the land from development.
• Focus on watershed and creekside restoration, reflecting to the community the value and meaning of ecological principles of natural regeneration complexity.
• Remembrance of the heritage and legacy of the First Peoples, respecting and honoring the sacrifices and ongoing presence of the ancestors of the land, reflecting to the community the value and meaning of their story.
• Restoration of the fishery, for bringing about the return of salmonids, offers hope to future generations, reflecting to the community the value and meaning of working for the benefit of the seventh generation.
• Reclaiming a communal culture of food making, reflecting to the community the value and meaning of building well-being for all creation.Today we celebrate that our criteria have been met by this purchase.
The LEAF Heritage Project unanimously expresses our unqualified support for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s effort to acquire this land and further your restoration vision.
We welcome the opportunity to assist the Tribe in helping build relationships in the community that would foster the achievement of your preservation, restoration and access goals to “enhance the property’s ecological value in a way that promotes the return of salmon.”
Please let us know if there is anything you need from the LEAF group and if we can support the Tribe in any way in this endeavor.
Members of the LEAF Heritage Project in alphabetical order by first name:
Addie Candib, American Farmland Trust
Brian Estes, The Local Inland Northwest Cooperative (LINC)
Chrys Ostrander, Spokane Farmland Preservation Working Group
Dave Schaub, Inland Northwest Land Conservancy
Ian Cunningham, private citizen
Jerry White, Spokane Riverkeeper
Kai Huschke, Latah-Hangman Neighborhood Council
Kirsten Angell, Sustainability Action Subcommittee of the Spokane City Council
Marc Gauthier, private citizen
Pat Keegan, Friends of the Bluff
Paul Kropp, Inland Northwest Trails Coalition
Todd Dunfield, Inland Northwest Land Conservancy
Trevor Finchamp, Friends of the Bluff
Vicki Carter, Spokane Conservation District
Latah Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries Heritage Project
(LEAF)
Press Release
For Immediate Release: September 15, 2021
Contact: Trevor Finchamp
509-992-6399
tfinchamp@gmail.com
Urban Conservation Coalition Applauds Coeur d’Alene Tribe for Spokane Land Purchase
Sept. 15, 2021, Spokane, WA – On September 14, the signing of final closing papers completed the transfer of title of 48 acres of lush open space in the Latah Valley south of downtown Spokane, Washington to the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. In a letter sent today, the Latah Environment, Agriculture & Fisheries Heritage Project (LEAF) expressed unqualified support to the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s successful effort to acquire this land. In the letter, LEAF welcomed the opportunity to assist the Tribe in helping build relationships in the community that would foster the achievement of their preservation, restoration, and access goals to, in the Tribe’s words, “enhance the property’s ecological value in a way that promotes the return of salmon.”
LEAF is an ad hoc coalition made up of local nonprofits and interested citizens and assisted by City staff Brian McClatchey and Erik Poulsen. Members of LEAF joined forces in late 2020 to try and find a way to preserve the open space instead of it being developed into a housing complex. The group began meeting regularly in an effort to come up with alternative scenarios and funding mechanisms and spent a majority of its time developing a plan for public acquisition of the property. Plans for private purchase were also discussed. The LEAF group’s efforts to develop a public acquisition plan did not meet with success although LEAF was able to raise awareness about the value of the property as open space. LEAF is pleased that the assistance it was able to provide the Coeur d’Alene Tribe played a significant role and contributed to this momentous outcome.
In January, LEAF reached out to the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. The Spokane and Coeur d’Alene tribes were the original caretakers of this place. Traditionally, they used to hunt, camp, fish and gather there. Through last spring and summer, LEAF assisted the Tribe by describing the property and providing the Tribe with voluminous files of information about the parcel. This helped inform the Tribe as it opened its lengthy negotiations with landowner John Pilcher of JRP Land, LLC. Those negotiations culminated yesterday with the finalization of the purchase.
“Spokane is changing. We are experiencing a huge influx of folks wanting to move to our area. This is a unique piece of property at a unique place and time. There are no other 48-acre pieces of open space like this along lower Hangman Creek, so we’re thrilled that one of the local tribes has been able to secure this acquisition.”
–Marc Gauthier, member of the LEAF Heritage Project
The property is at the south end of an area of south Spokane nestled between State Route 195 and the steep bluffs of High Drive Bluff Park at the foot of which flows Hangman Creek. The farm represents about 30% of the City of Spokane’s only “Residential Agricultural” zone where commercial farming is allowed, as well as private homes. There are farms and greenhouse operations in Vinegar Flats, but much of the good agricultural soil has already been built over by homes and forever lost for farming.
Several attempts have been made over the years to put the land into conservation that did not come to fruition. This time, a jolt was felt by conservationists and city officials alike in 2019 when a conditional permit was approved to allow building a 96-unit gated housing development on the land. This sparked renewed interest, if not passion, to try and save the parcel from development. In the spring of 2020, a steady string of behind the scenes discussions, letter-writing campaigns, involvement of local conservation organizations and several newspaper and radio news stories became part of a strategy to build public awareness as well as political pressure to save the 48 acres. City Council Member Lori Kinnear and Council President Breean Beggs have been closely involved in this project.
In response to the energetic public discussion, in late October 2020, LEAF organized a tour hosted by JRP Land, LLC, for city and county staff and others interested in public acquisition. Representatives from several conservation organizations, City of Spokane officials and a Spokane County Commissioner gathered at the farm, located just south of the Vinegar Flats neighborhood, to discuss its future. After the tour, the landowners expressed their continuing interest in selling the property to the City or County if a suitable plan were to be offered, however, they also reiterated their interest in selling the property to an interested developer unless they saw a clear plan for public acquisition. Shortly after the late October tour, LEAF began meeting in an effort to come up with a plan to save the property from development. The purchase by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe lays the fear of development finally at rest.
Members of the LEAF Heritage Project in alphabetical order by first name:
Addie Candib, American Farmland Trust
Chrys Ostrander, Spokane Farmland Preservation Working Group
Dave Schaub, Inland Northwest Land Conservancy
Ian Cunningham, private citizen
Jerry White, Spokane Riverkeeper
Kai Huschke, Latah-Hangman Neighborhood Council
Kirsten Angell, Sustainability Action Subcommittee of the Spokane City Council
Marc Gauthier, private citizen
Pat Keegan, Friends of the Bluff
Paul Kropp, Inland Northwest Trails Coalition
Todd Dunfield, Inland Northwest Land Conservancy
Trevor Finchamp, Friends of the Bluff
Vicki Carter, Spokane Conservation District