New Neighborhood Tree Owners Share Their Joy

By Justyce Brant
Urban Forestry Program Director for The Lands Council

After a season of planting trees along the Appleway Trail in Spokane Valley, The Lands Council and our CoolCanopy partners at the Spokane Conservation District are shifting our focus to residential plantings. 

This switch to neighborhoods, with the help of incredible volunteers, means high-quality trees are benefiting people right at their homes – for free!

In May, local residents Lindy, Melissa and Jim, Laurie, Al, Mark, Skip, Brook and Shawn, and Kolbie received their new green friends after demonstrating a commitment to caring for these trees. After all, newly planted trees can only help take care of us if we take care of them! 

Laurie lives in Airway Heights with her rescue pup. She just completed construction on her dream home, located next to the trailer she previously lived in. She is passionate about creating a more shaded, beautiful space — not just for her and her 5-year old granddaughter, but for the whole community. Laurie specifically requested flowering trees so her neighbors could also enjoy their beauty.

We planted her trees with the incredible students from Cheney WIN Academy — such a kind and enthusiastic group!

Jim and Melissa live in Spokane Valley and have spent years working to beautify their home. They care deeply for the local wildlife — especially the marmots that often visit their yard! A few years ago, Melissa lost her beloved lilacs to blight, which devastated her; those lilacs had served as both a visual joy and a privacy screen.

They were overjoyed to receive six flowering trees, which we planted along their hillside with students and teachers from Innovation High School — one of our longest-standing school partners. Jim was so excited he joined the planting himself, and Melissa thoughtfully recorded all the names the students gave to the trees. They were incredibly helpful and we plan to return and plant more trees soon!

Student volunteers from The Community School at Lindy’s

Lindy lives in Spokane Valley in a home with very little vegetation. It gets extremely hot in the summer, and he was excited to plant trees along his back fence to add shade, privacy, and beauty, not just for himself, but for his neighbors too.

Students from The Community School joined us for their “Spring Into Action Day” and planted all of the trees in Lindy’s backyard. When we returned to finish up the front yard planting, Lindy had already installed a timed irrigation system!

He later sent us this lovely note:

“The trees look GREAT! Nice job once again. I’m going to set up my timers and get the everyday watering going. Thanks again for all you do.”

“It’s an awesome legacy. This home deserves to be forested again. I love the thought of those serviceberries giving people shade and encouraging wildlife to visit. Can’t wait to watch them grow. It would have been financially unfeasible to do this on my own. I know what you all have done here and love the connection we’ve made to make the neighborhood better.”

Volunteers with Travelers Insurance with Mark

Mark was one of the most memorable residents we worked with on this particular week. He’s a Gulf War veteran and soon will undergo his 18th procedure on his back — a long recovery journey after a shrapnel blast injury. Despite this, Mark is incredibly warm, positive, and full of life.

He spends his days walking around his property and feeding peanuts to his beloved squirrels, Rocky and Rocky 2. He also treasures his 65-year-old maple tree and wanted to add more trees for the squirrels to enjoy.

He stayed with us the entire time we planted on his property. When we were leaving, I asked if I could give him a hug and he looked genuinely moved and gave me a long, heartfelt embrace. He said, “Thank you so much, and I hope to see you soon, sweetie.” It really stayed with me.

On Track Academy students with Al

Al lives in a small home in Airway Heights, one that originally belonged to his son, who needed more space as his family grew. So Al swapped houses with him to stay close by and visit his five grandchildren often.

Al has a deep love for trees and was thrilled to add more color and life to his property. When On Track Academy students helped plant his tree, they affectionately said he looked like Santa Claus, which made him laugh out loud. He even offered to buy all the students ice cream. We declined because we had more planting to do, but we were genuinely touched by the gesture.

Volunteers from Travelers Insurance with Brook, Shawn, and Martha

Brook, Shawn, and Martha live in a new development in Airway Heights where there’s almost no vegetation. With summers getting hotter each year, they were deeply grateful for the opportunity to receive free trees.

We talked about how meaningful it will be for their daughter, Martha, to grow up alongside these trees and see them flourish over the years.

We planted their trees with volunteers from Travelers Insurance Agency — a joyful and committed group of folks who were excited to be a part of this work.

Skip and Kolbie were both kind and enthusiastic about their trees (we didn’t get photos this time around). 

Many Thanks

Huge thanks go to volunteers from The Community School, Cheney WIN Academy, Innovation High School, Travelers Insurance Agency, and On Track Academy for coming out to help these home owners give their new trees a solid start. 

As partners with the Spokane Conservation District, we are dedicated to assisting with tree plantings and working towards increasing canopy coverage in these neighborhoods by 2030. Our collective efforts seek to promote environmental justice and foster healthier communities.

Kat (Hall) and I feel so grateful to be a part of this work — and I’m personally so thankful for the leadership, care, and collaboration you all bring to the table. Every tree we plant is part of something much bigger — and it's so special to share that with our residents, students, and all of you.

Explore the Spokane Conservation District website to find out more about this program and determine if you qualify for a complimentary tree on your property!

Confrontation, Negotiation, Compromise. Repeat.

Mark Solomon: Executive Director, 1995-1999

In celebration of our 40th Anniversary, The Lands Council highlights the contributions of those who have served as its executive directors. 

By Kate Vanskike, TLC Board President

If John Osborn was the visionary for The Lands Council, Mark Solomon was the architect. 

Mark Solomon’s experience for the job with The Lands Council was vast and varied. He’d been County Commissioner for Latah County, a grizzly bear lobbyist in the Bitteroots of Montana, held a Ph.D. in water resources, and led the University of Idaho’s Water Institute. 

It was while he was working as a blacksmith and volunteering as a water quality activist focused on the Clearwater River basin that John Osborne (TLC founder) asked Mark to join this young board in Spokane. He was serving as the board’s VP when in 1995 he was asked to be the executive director. 

The Lands Council under Mark expanded beyond its forest-related activism and litigation work — which had been wildly successful in scaling back logging in the National Forests of the upper Columbia River Basin — to include water quality efforts, particularly in the Coeur d’Alene / Spokane watershed. Despite the fact that TLC had a small staff and budget, Mark guided the production of a “Get the Lead Out”  campaign that, among other things, distributed 10,000 VHS tapes to educate residents and leaders on the toxins flowing into the waters of the basin from mining in the Silver Valley. 165 billion pounds of lead-contaminated sediments were washing down the Coeur d’Alene River into Coeur d’Alene Lake and into the Spokane River. 

The video campaign brought massive attention to this issue — along with controversy. “The mining companies had the money and were heavily invested in Spokane,” Mark explains. “Plus, people just didn’t want to believe what was happening.” 

That’s one of the reasons Mark insisted that The Lands Council join the Spokane Chamber of Commerce, where, hopefully, TLC representatives could influence matters. 

During Solomon’s era, founder John Osborn continued to publish the newsletter “Transitions” to provide education to the public.

Alongside this massive undertaking, Mark says his first priority in becoming executive director was to hire staff (there were only two full-time employees) and to find ways to engage the membership. He started annual conferences and meetings, and offered role-playing workshops with activists, demonstrating how to find solutions with those who advocated against environmental causes. 

“I wanted people to be well aware of how the process works and identify whether they were capable of compromise,” Mark says. “It was particularly illuminating for the staff, some of whom believed that compromise was ‘selling out’ before the exercise. That changed.”

Amid these big-picture advances, it was Mark who led the organization to shorten its original name — the Inland Empire Public Lands Council — to The Lands Council, while maintaining the original mission: protecting the forests and waters of the Inland Northwest.

First Di Bernardo Environmental Heroes Award Honors Educator

Deb Di Bernardo

At its 30th annual April Showers auction held April 5, The Lands Council presented its first Deb Di Bernardo Environmental Heroes Award. Di Bernardo, founder and owner of Roast House Coffee, was an avid supporter of The Lands Council, Spokane’s longest-serving environmental nonprofit. 

Executive Director Amanda Parrish shared with more than 250 attendees how Di Bernardo and husband Jim Haynes started Roast House with a mission to source only certified organic, earth-friendly coffees. “But Deb’s impact went far beyond coffee,” Parrish said. “She knew that caring for the planet also meant caring for people. She championed local causes, lifted up her community, and never hesitated to promote The Lands Council as an organization that aligned with her values.”

Parrish continued: “Deb didn’t have to commit to sustainable coffee practices. She didn’t have to uplift women-owned farms or give so much to local nonprofits. But she did, because she lived her values. And so, we can think of no better way to honor Deb and her legacy than by creating an annual award in her name, given to a fellow environmental hero.”

LISA MaTTSON

The first recipient of the award is Lisa Mattson, who has worked in Spokane Public Schools for more than 30 years, and since 2009 has been the principal of On Track Academy, an alternative high school built to support students who might not thrive in a traditional school setting. 

“Under Lisa’s leadership, On Track Academy has flourished as a nurturing environment where students are empowered to take charge of their education. But like Deb, Lisa’s commitment to her students — and her community — goes far beyond the job description,” said Parrish. “Lisa wants every student who walks through On Track’s doors to build a personal connection with nature. Each year, her students host free tree giveaways for the whole community. When The Lands Council wanted to build stormwater gardens in public schools with student involvement, Lisa was the first principal to say yes.”

Mattson understands the vital role urban trees play in placemaking, in calming traffic, in reducing asthma rates, and knows that the neighborhoods her students live in — where 75% of families are in poverty — are less likely to be healthy,  green, shaded neighborhoods. She regularly attends tree equity conferences or urban planning meetings to champion equity and climate justice for those areas. 

Receiving the award, Mattson noted the need for community members to get behind efforts like The Lands Council, especially as it and other organizations face the realities of federal funding decisions. 

The Lands Council celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, having been founded in 1985 by John Osborn, a physician who challenged corporate and government actions responsible for destroying forests. Its April Showers fundraiser featured a canoe that belonged to Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder; other items from Vedder will be sold in a nationwide online auction later this year. Visit this page to see details.

Read more about The Lands Council’s 40th Anniversary here.