Two northeast Washington landowners have donated a conservation easement to The Humane Society of the United States Wildlife Land Trust, permanently protecting their property for wildlife. The resulting sanctuary is 25 acres in an area that is rapidly losing habitat to development.
Established by Jeri Cross and Ruby Niemeyer, the sanctuary is located approximately 50 miles northeast of Spokane, and its eastern boundary coincides with the state boundary between Washington and Idaho. The 14,000-acre Mount Spokane State Park—a haven for wildlife—lies just beyond a neighboring property.
The Cross-Niemeyer Wildlife Sanctuary is primarily forested, and includes a large grove of aspen trees that flood every spring. The resident mix of wetlands and dry pine forest provide a diversity of habitat for animals. "There's a lot of wildlife—it's like a nature show every day," said Cross, a musician and retired medical laboratory scientist. "We have this big picture window in our cabin, and friends come and say 'Don't turn on the TV—this is so much better!'"
A conservation easement is a permanent and legally enforceable agreement between a landowner and a land trust. The landowner agrees to establish the property as a permanent wildlife sanctuary—an agreement that is binding on all future owners of the property—and the land trust enforces the terms of the agreement. For The HSUS Wildlife Land Trust, these terms always include no recreational or commercial hunting or trapping.
Cross and Neimeyer are concerned about the threat that development poses to the moose, elk, black bears, eagles, turkeys and myriad other species that frequent their area. "Animals have no choice but to either move elsewhere or come closer to people, which isn't in their best interest either," said Cross, who also worries about hunting and trapping pressures on wildlife populations. "The city is just moving out to the suburbs, and the animals have to go further and further up into the hills."
Cross and Neimeyer first approached a local land trust about their property, but were referred to the Trust as a potentially better fit for their needs. "Finding an organization to serve general conservation purposes and to provide wildlife with a permanent sanctuary is not an easy task for landowners," Robert Koons, executive director of the Trust said. "Our niche, as the only national organization that prohibits recreational and commercial hunting and trapping on its sanctuaries, offered these donors the opportunity to fulfill their key goals."
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Since its founding in 1993, the Wildlife Land Trust has worked with private landowners to create 109 permanent wildlife sanctuaries where recreational and commercial hunting and trapping will always be prohibited. In addition, the Wildlife Land Trust works in collaboration with a variety of partners to protect many other vulnerable lands to benefit wildlife. Proud of its affiliation with the Humane Society of the United States, the Wildlife Land Trust joins in campaigns to protect wildlife from cruel and indefensible practices such as poaching, steel-jawed leghold traps, Internet hunting and canned shoots. Join our online community at wildlifelandtrust.org. Saving Lives by Saving Land.
The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization — backed by 10.5 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty — On the web at humanesociety.org.
