Greater Sandpoint Greenprint

Sandpoint in northern Idaho bustles with innovative businesses within an awe-inspiring natural setting. The town is nestled between three mountain ranges, bordered by Idaho’s largest lake (Lake Pend Oreille) at the foot of Idaho’s biggest ski area (Schweitzer Mountain). Once named “the most beautiful town in America,” Sandpoint reveals nature at its finest.

The town boasts a lively art community and an acclaimed dining scene. The community embraces this growth but wants to encourage sustainable economic development and retain the livability and spectacular scenery that make it such a special place.

To protect this unique area’s outdoor adventure and economic stability, conservationists enlisted TPL’s help to craft a “greenprint,” which helps communities make informed decisions about how to grow while preserving character, opportunities for recreation, clean water, environmental benefits, and quality of life.

A greenprint starts with community engagement and leads to state-of-the-art computer models and maps developed using Geographic Information System software (GIS). Greenprints provide conservation plans that allow communities to determine how to protect natural resources, open space, working lands, and trails; how to raise funds; and the steps to acquiring and managing these protected lands.

Trust for Public Land partnered with many organizations to coordinate the Greater Sandpoint Greenprint. Hundreds of residents shared their views through a community survey and local forums. The feedback determined the key goals of the greenprint: maintaining water quality, providing recreation, protecting wildlife habitat, and preserving working lands.

Now, Sandpoint can continue to offer outdoor recreation, such as skiing, boating, water sports, camping, beautiful parks and trails, sandy beaches, and panoramic mountain views. Although it is a hot spot for such industries as aerospace, biomedicine, software development, food production, and manufacturing, it remains a beautiful place to live, with ample business opportunities. It also attracts tourists and new residents from around the country, helping build the local economy.

“We need to prepare ourselves for the next boom-and-bust cycle by protecting those places important to the community and attracting people to live here in the first place,” says Eric Grace, executive director of Kaniksu Land Trust.