Volunteer Land Steward Program

The Conservation Community (that’s you!) has helped Inland Northwest Land Conservancy to conserve over 28,000 acres of the beautiful wildlife habitats, waters, healthy forests, open spaces, and recreational lands that are essential to life in our region. Now it’s time to get to work caring for the lands we’ve protected!

One way you can help is by becoming a Volunteer Land Steward! Stewards design and complete habitat enhancement projects, monitor trails, educate public land users, and note wildlife, vegetative, and hydrologic trends on the land.

Your extra eyes and ears on the land help us to be more responsive land managers and your extra hands ensure that important projects get completed quickly.

The Volunteer Land Steward Program is a great fit for you, if:

  • You want to explore new places and enjoy being active in nature
  • You are interested in citizen science
  • You like taking initiative
  • You are good at educating the public on the work you’re doing and how they can help the land too
  • You like working independently or as part of a small group
  • You are tech savvy and willing to learn our app-based monitoring software
  • You want to be part of a strong stewardship community

Contact Us to Learn More About Becoming a Volunteer Land Steward

Interested in learning more about becoming a Volunteer Land Steward? Contact us to learn more or sign up for our monthly Volunteer Orientation event. This is your introduction to Conservancy volunteer opportunities and more information about becoming a Volunteer Land Steward.

Ben Sprague
Volunteer and Events Manager
(509) 328-2939

Already a Land Steward?

Submit your monitoring reports below

Click to submit a report

Becoming a Steward

Phase One: Attend a Training

To become a steward, volunteers must attend a Volunteer Orientation and complete a 1.5-hour training with Inland Northwest Land Conservancy stewardship staff. This training outlines the steward’s role as INLC ambassadors, monitoring and reporting protocols, and safety in the field.

The Conservancy hosts Volunteer Orientations once a month. Keep your eyes on our events page for the next Orientation.

Click to view events page

Becoming a Steward

Phase Two: Select a Property

Once you’ve attended the training, you can select a property from the list below. We’ll discuss what kind of projects you’d like to work on, how far you’re willing to drive to steward your site,

what landscape features you enjoy being near while you’re outdoors, and to get you matched with a place you’ll love.

When you’ve selected a property, we’ll send you some information about the property to get you oriented, including:

  • A baseline report – an inventory of species found on the property and a general description of the landscape.
  • Printable property maps
  • A digital Landscape handbook

Becoming a Steward

Phase Three: Schedule a Site Visit

The last step of the training process is a site visit to the property you’ve selected. INLC stewardship staff will walk you through heavily used trails, hot spots, or areas that frequently see issues like garbage, photo points or areas that are likely to change and should be repeatedly visited, and go over your Land Steward Report Form and how to use it in the field.