CONSERVATION -- I hear grumbling about state and federal agencies being proactive by buying or blocking up lowland wild areas. But listen up.

Far-sighted groups such as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, Inland Northwest Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy are joining the cause and teaming with agencies to save some of these precious wildlife and winter range lands from future development.

 As private timber companies liquidate their forests and look for the higher profit of subdividing and developing their lands, consider this quote in today's front page S-R story on the forest planning process being kicked off in North Idaho.

"You look at real estate ads these days. They say, 'Adjacent to national forest lands.' That's a selling point for people."

Mary Farnsworth, supervisor of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, where nearly 40 percent of its 2.5 million acres are now classified as "wildland-urban interface."
- Spokane Spokesman-Review

See how private groups are helping the Forest Service and state wildlife agencies preserve critical wildlife areas in the east slope of the Cascades as well as north of Lake Pend Oreille.