Preserving Prairie

Tom Stephan has a dream where the prairie land that Kootenai County residents know and love could be a source of regenerative agriculture and food, forever. 

A former certified arborist and chapter president of the nonprofit conservation organization Pheasants Forever, Stephan, 67, has spent the bulk of his life studying the steady decline of wildlife and habitat throughout the United States. 

After moving back to the Panhandle last year, Stephan, like many Kootenai County residents, was shocked at the rapid loss of land on the Rathdrum Prairie he remembers fondly from decades ago.

Now living in one of those new subdivisions that have filled once-fertile farmland, Stephan takes his pups out to the fields and looks out with longing. 

"My wife said when she was a kid she used to drive down here just to smell the mint and lavender that used to grow around here," he said. "We've got to have that for the next generation coming in, see flat, wide-open space and prairie land." 

His wish is for Kootenai County to set aside a portion of the prairie as an agricultural preserve, where any farming or community garden could grow crops.

According to the Idaho Department of Water Resources, the prairie and Kootenai County lands were once home to livestock, legumes, barley, wheat, oat, flax, and hay. However, in the 2017 United States Department of Agriculture crop survey, Kootenai County mainly produced just barley, hay and bluegrass.

Stephan's food forever project relies on poultry — like turkeys, pheasants or chickens, to roam and pick at the preserved soil. Naturally tilling the land, rain would water the area and attract earthworms to "fluff off" the soil, he said.

The digested soil earthworms leave behind is high in nutrients and mycorrhizal fungi — a known aid for growing vegetable flowers, perennials, trees and shrubs. 

By practicing this regenerative and habitual farming style, Stephan said prairie land could be healthy and produce organic food for the community forever. 

If you drive out to Rathdrum, he said, it would be impossible not to see prairie fields being rapidly developed. Subsequently, city residents have a strong connection to land, including Leon Duce, Rathdrum city administrator. 

"On a personal note, I think this would be a wonderful idea," Duce said. "In working with the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation, there has been a lot of discussion on community farms to provide healthy food alternatives to fast food or take out."

Duce said most city residents, staff and council support preserving open space on the prairie. Nevertheless, Rathdrum's jurisdiction ends at the city limits, Duce noted, and the prairie is primarily under county control.

While all of the regional Area of City Impact agreements aim to protect annexation areas, Kootenai County Community Development Director David Callahan said they are not the best channels for creating an agricultural preserve. There are better ways, he pointed out, like open space programs. 

"A nonprofit land trust could purchase farmland with the help of federal, state or local grants. It would commit to keeping the land in farming forever," Callahan said. "A portion of the land could be set aside as a community garden. The remaining land could be leased to farmers." 

Creating an agricultural preserve could be done by the cities, the county, a nonprofit, or a sole philanthropist, Callahan said. However, he also said he hasn't seen one proposed in the last seven and a half years.

In Hayden's 2040 Comprehensive Plan, Community Development Director Melissa Cleveland noted that the city is leaving portions of the ACI and Shared Tier area agricultural. Much like Rathdrum, Cleveland said Hayden would follow county guidance when setting up a preserve.

"It seems feasible that land could be put into a conservation trust or conservation easement for this type of land use by the landowner, which could preserve the property for this use in perpetuity," Cleveland said. "This isn't something the city can force, but if the landowners were willing, the city would likely support it."

Post Falls Community Development Director Robert Seale also said the Shared ACI land is under county purview. Still, he said, the department is always in favor of sustainable development and preserving open space.

With community support, Stephan hopes local stakeholders and landowners could create a group to make the preserve a reality. 

"This habitat degradation, coupled with the loss of ground for housing developments, will see this flat land gone for the foreseeable future if we don't take certain measures to preserve some of it," Stephan said. "But we will need community support."