The Inland Northwest Land Conservancy has announced the permanent protection of 14 acres of Drewes Farm in Spokane, Washington. 

The Land Conservancy reached a conservation agreement with the Bauer family, which owns the property, and intends to create a sustainable natural space with trails, native plants, and a restored wetland that the whole community can enjoy. The farm is one of the few undeveloped spaces on the upper South Hill in Spokane, and part of it will soon be home to a cutting-edge YMCA facility. 

“While most of Inland Northwest Land Conservancy’s land protection projects are much larger and represent forests, meadows, and waterways, this space is important to the local community and will create the opportunity for thousands of local residents to learn about and connect with a thriving Inland Northwest ecosystem,” the Land Conservancy said in a blog post.

“This’ll be kind of a little oasis,” Carol Corbin, the conservancy’s director of philanthropy and communications, told the Spokane Spokesman Review. “It’s a little island of land in the midst of a whole bunch of housing and urban development.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/tomofbluesprings)