Preserving and Restoring Palouse Prairie
Our native Palouse Prairie is critically endangered - less than 1% remains. We play an important role in a comprehensive strategy to preserve what's left and restore this beautiful and unique habitat.
It is said that it takes a village to raise a child - and it takes a community to save an ecosystem. Families, individuals, grassroots organizations, plant nurseries, local, state, and federal agencies; we are all coming together to save this incredible landscape.
Bit by bit, we are helping to piece together a patchwork of prairie habitat that will allow native wildlife and pollinators to not just survive, but thrive - and in the case of threatened and endangered species - give them a chance at recovering.
Conservation and restoration efforts in the region have largely been led by private landowners volunteering to restore habitat on their land. Over the past decade, momentum has been growing for these landowners to consider long-term protection efforts for the land to ensure these areas are protected long after they’re gone. As a community-based land trust, the Palouse Land Trust works with these families and local, state, and federal agencies to permanently protect and restore critical habitat in our region.
To-date, we've worked with local families to permanently protect over 540 acres of critically endangered Palouse Prairie habitat. Most of this has been through conservation easements on private land, but in the fall of 2016, thanks to support from private donors, and local, state, and federal grants, the Land Trust acquired 62 acres of beautiful prairie land on Paradise Ridge, now known as the Dave Skinner Ecological Preserve.
This is only the beginning; for us, the Palouse Prairie Initiative is so much larger than total acreage protected or number of projects. It is about working with our partners to build a comprehensive strategy for preserving and restoring this critically endangered ecosystem. With the support of people like you, we are making amazing things happen.
Water Howelia »
This property protects the only known Idaho population of a unique, and threatened plant species Howelia aquatilis that is being considered for endangered species listing.